Chapter 3
When I woke again,
I was no longer in the marquis’s residence.
I was in a prison cart.
I looked at Yin Li before me, frail and wretched, his body covered in wounds.
Suddenly, I laughed.
Once again, I had escaped death and lived, along with the man in front of me.
Life was so precious.
Yin Li sucked in a breath of pain.
“Xiaohua, how can you still laugh? Your good days are over.”
Xiaohua was my old name.
Yin Yao was the name Yin Li had given me after I followed him to the capital and rose to glory on his coattails.
I moved closer and bandaged his bleeding wounds.
“I was just thinking that our fates have always been tied together. We share the glory and the disgrace.
“Whether in Xiaoxi Village or the capital.”
He sighed apologetically.
“I’m sorry, Xiaohua. I’ve dragged you down with me.”
I concentrated on tying several pretty bows over his wounds.
“There’s no need for that between us.
“You have to live to make a comeback. And only when you recover can things get better for me.
“Tell me. What happened?”
Yin Li spoke slowly, in a cold voice that betrayed little emotion.
As though the man who decided the rise and fall of his fortunes were not his father.
Thunder or rain, it was all the sovereign’s grace.
His Majesty was in his prime.
When he acknowledged Yin Li, he had sincerely wanted to be a loving father.
After all, Yin Li was the only child his first empress had left him.
But Yin Li was too clever, too faultless.
Whenever he governed as regent, praise rang out within the court and beyond it.
He put every matter in order and never made a mistake.
He did too well—far better than His Majesty himself.
One year passed, then two, then three, and finally five.
Yin Li was still young. His Majesty was growing older by the day.
His subjects began hoping the emperor would die and Yin Li would succeed him.
Everyone awaited the birth of a new reign of peace and prosperity.
Suspicion transformed His Majesty’s temperament.
He believed the Noble Consort, and the evidence riddled with holes.
He pronounced Yin Li guilty of plotting rebellion and cursing his father and sovereign.
When more than half his ministers pleaded for mercy,
the last trace of fatherly affection in him vanished.
He even wanted Yin Li executed at once.
Afraid her birth family would be implicated, the crown princess went to the prison and asked Yin Li for a deed of divorce by mutual consent.
Now Yin Li, like me, was alone in the world.
Yin Li said,
“The crown princess is a good, virtuous woman. I brought this upon her.”
I nodded.
“Yes. And upon me.”
Yin Li was being exiled to Youzhou.
After two or three days beneath the scorching sun, his wounds began to fester and he developed a high fever.
I beat on the bars.
“Sir, we cannot go on. His Highness needs a physician.”
No one paid me any heed.
They kept whipping the horses forward.
Suddenly, I understood.
His Majesty wanted Yin Li dead.
He wanted an accidental death, one that would leave his reputation untouched, without the shame of killing his son for posterity to condemn.
That was why, while Yin Li was gravely wounded,
he had sent him into exile without delay.
That night, I let out a wail.
“His Highness isn’t breathing! He isn’t breathing!”
At last the soldiers came.
They examined Yin Li without expression.
Once they were sure he wasn’t breathing, they carried the body down, dumped it beside the road, and dug a pit to bury him alive.
When it was done, the officer in charge gave the order.
“Back to the capital.”
And that was that.
I caught at him in panic.
“Sir! What do you mean? What about me? What am I to do?”
“You?” He gave a strange smile.
“The wife of the Marquis of Anping’s heir died suddenly six days ago. Who are you?”
He shook off my hand and led his guards back toward the capital.
I sat dazed on the ground. When they were far away, I dug Yin Li out with my bare hands.
My hands covered in blood, I supported his body and gritted my teeth as I struggled forward.
He had stopped breathing and lost his body heat. Now he was no different from a dead man.
I stripped two sets of clothes from bodies in an unmarked burial ground and changed us into them.
Sunlight struck my prison clothes. Something reflected into my eyes.
My heart jolted.
I tore the garment open.
Banknotes lined the inner layer, sewn close against my body. At the very bottom were the pearls from a pair of pearl-drop earrings.
I had worn them at my wedding to Lu Jinglan.
The morning after our wedding night, I couldn’t find them anywhere. I thought I had lost them.
When I complained to Lu Jinglan, he merely settled me on his lap and, smiling, took my earlobe between his lips, murmuring what a pity it was.
Now, seeing their soft luster in the sunlight,
I stood stunned, as if someone had struck me over the head.
My insides slowly twisted tight. Pain stabbed through every limb, every bone.
I clutched my lower belly and doubled over, drenched in sweat, unable to breathe.
My tears were already streaming.
I raised my head.
I wiped roughly at my face.
I held back the collapse, the urge to break into great, desperate sobs.
With difficulty, I hauled Yin Li up and moved forward.
I had little time to cry or dwell on what he had done for me.
I had to go forward.
Forward was the only way.
I had no choice.