Chapter 4

Shen Yan said he would make me Consort Zhao.

I didn’t really understand what Consort Zhao meant, but if he said it, it had to be something good.

On the day the decree arrived, I was in the little kitchen making the flower cakes Shen Yan liked.

Cuilan pulled me down to kneel before Eunuch Li.

He spoke for a long time. At last, he smiled at me. “Your Highness, Consort Zhao, accept the decree and thank His Majesty.”

I stared for a while before remembering that he meant me.

But my name was Furong—Hibiscus.

Shen Yan had always called me Little Hibiscus.

Only, he hadn’t called me that once since coming back.

I thought about it for a long time. Perhaps he no longer thought Furong sounded nice, and had given me another name.

“Of course it’s a lovely name, Your Highness. Zhao means brightness and beauty. It’s a very special choice.” Cuilan smiled as she kneaded dough beside me. “His Majesty really does treasure you.”

Of course he did.

Shen Yan liked me best.

I smiled smugly to myself and kneaded the dough with renewed vigor.

Shen Yan loved my flower cakes.

“How long were you with my mother?” he asked, looking at the cake in his hand.

I counted on my fingers. “Four years.”

Perhaps it had been longer. I simply knew nothing of what happened before I sprouted.

Shen Yan nodded and bit into the cake. “It tastes very much like hers.”

It was only a little like hers, really.

Back when the empress told his maid the recipe, I had been dozing in the sunshine.

If only I hadn’t been sleepy then.

I could have made them taste much more like hers now.

Cuilan said the empress had been dead for many years. I hadn’t known.

No wonder Shen Yan no longer liked to smile.

There was nothing I could do except stay beside him and tell him more about his mother’s life back then.

Once, while he was out of the palace playing, the empress had secretly cried in front of me.

No one knew that but me.

“If you like them, I’ll keep making them for you.” I edged closer and tipped my face up to smile at him.

He stroked my head, and a smile lit his eyes.

“All right.”

Shen Yan’s birthday was coming.

In the past, he had never been very happy on his birthday.

His father always forgot to prepare a present for him.

Only the empress would secretly leave a gift beside his pillow on the night before.

Now the empress was gone.

That meant it was my turn to do it.

I rocked back and forth on the swing until my head was dizzy, but still couldn’t think what to give him.

“His Majesty is the Son of Heaven. Naturally, there’s nothing he lacks.” Cuilan helped me think, pushing me gently from behind. “As long as you’re with him, Your Highness, I’m sure he’ll be happy.”

I smiled, too.

She was talking nonsense.

Being with Shen Yan was a gift to me.

How could it count as a gift to him?

I tossed and turned that night, unable to sleep because of it.

Shen Yan rolled onto his side and pulled me close. Only when I lay still did he ask softly, “Why aren’t you sleeping?”

“Shen Yan.” I looked up at him and blinked. “What would you like for your birthday?”

He paused.

It was pitch-black around us. I couldn’t see anything, only feel his warm breath.

So warm.

I snuggled into his arms.

He held me even tighter.

After a while, he said hoarsely, “I don’t want anything. Only you.”

Just what Cuilan had said.

I giggled.

“Of course I’m yours. I’ll stay with you forever and ever.”

But he gave a little sigh, his arms loosening slightly.

With a trace of helplessness, he said, “Then you’d better hurry and grow up, my Consort Zhao.”

Cuilan had said that to me, too.

While doing my hair that day, she had smiled at my reflection. “Our Consort Zhao must hurry and grow up. You’ll be a beauty who could bring kingdoms to their knees.”

When I first took human form, I hadn’t noticed anything different about myself.

Only in the last couple of days had I realized I was a little shorter than Cuilan.

My chest was a little smaller, too.

It must have been because I had hidden among the weeds all those years, waiting for Shen Yan to come back.

But it didn’t matter now.

Shen Yan was back.

I no longer had to keep my branches tucked away.

Before much longer, I would be able to bloom for him.

“All right. I’ll eat more every day and hurry up and grow.” I put my arms around Shen Yan and closed my eyes with a smile.

Grandfather Heaven had been so good to me.

He had let me be Shen Yan’s flower, and now Shen Yan’s Consort Zhao as well.