Chapter 5

We returned to the capital before the New Year.

Our time beyond the frontier passed like a fleeting dream.

What must come would always come. The heir’s wedding was set for the following summer.

Before she entered the household, however, his future wife made one demand: I was to be sent away.

She had already found me an excellent match—Wang Yan, eldest son of the Chief Censor of the Left.

The clammy, revolting sensation still seemed to cling to my wrist.

It had happened at the beginning of spring, when the residence held a Hundred Flowers Banquet and the heir went out to receive the guests.

As I walked along a covered corridor, a drunken figure suddenly lurched around the corner. A clammy, sweat-slicked hand seized my wrist.

It felt as revolting as a slimy snake winding around me.

Terrified, I screamed again and again for help.

By good fortune, the heir emerged from the bamboo grove at that moment with a group of richly dressed young gentlemen.

At the sight, they exchanged uneasy glances.

I wrenched myself free of those greasy hands and threw myself at the heir.

He caught me.

I buried my face against his chest and trembled.

The man hurried to beg forgiveness. “A misunderstanding—it was all a misunderstanding. The wine clouded my head. I truly did not know this young lady’s identity.”

Silence lingered beside the bamboo grove until Wang Yan’s wine-soaked confusion had thoroughly cleared.

A cool breeze brushed my face. The heir left only one instruction—”Someone escort Young Master Wang to the front hall to sober up”—before wrapping an arm around me and leading me away.

“Young Master Wang, this way.” A guard’s voice came from behind us.

I should have felt safe in the heir’s arms, yet throughout it all I felt a gaze at my back, following me like a venomous snake.

Only later did I learn that the Chief Censor of the Left’s family was related by marriage to the Minister of Rites.

Wang Yan, eldest son of the Chief Censor, was the future heir’s wife’s cousin. That meant the Censor’s residence would soon become kin to the Prince of Zhenbei’s as well.

Had the incident at the Hundred Flowers Banquet truly been an accident?

I had been within the inner compound. How could an unrelated man have entered unimpeded without the host’s permission?

I did not know and had no means to investigate. From that day on, I became still more cautious in everything I did.

Yet even that could not spare me from this predicament.

In truth, had they merely sent me away—to an estate in the countryside, or anywhere at all after returning my bond of servitude—I would have accepted it.

I had long wanted to leave. I simply never had the chance.

But I had not imagined Wen Wan could be so vicious that nothing would satisfy her except delivering me into the hands of that snake Wang Yan.

Wang Yan’s debauchery was notorious throughout the capital. If I truly fell into his hands, would I survive at all?

I hurried to see the heir.

What else could I do? I could only beg him. But before I managed to voice my plea, he smiled and asked, “When Yu’er goes to Young Master Wang, will you still think of me?”

His voice was gentle, as though making idle conversation, yet with a single sentence he decided my fate.

I felt as though I had plunged into an icehouse. My heart sank to the bottom, and I trembled so hard that I could not speak. I could only stare at his smiling face as he uttered the most heartless words in the world.

That very night, I was put into a small dark-red sedan chair and carried out through a side gate of the prince’s residence.

The chair swayed like a lonely skiff, traveling through the darkness.

Attendants walked before and behind it. Fortunately, I was no person of consequence, so there were not many guards.

Muffled thunder rolled across the sky. In an instant, a violent storm broke, drumming against the sedan chair.

Inside its pitch-dark compartment, I touched the dagger hidden in my sleeve.

This was my last choice when every other choice had been taken from me. I had long prepared for the worst.

I absolutely could not enter the Chief Censor’s residence.

No one would help me. I could rely only on myself.

My wretched life was worth little. There would be no great loss if I died.

That meant I could risk everything.

I stripped off my white cloak, revealing the fitted black clothes beneath. Hidden by night and driving rain, I slipped lightly out of the sedan chair.

I landed in water that nearly covered the street, rolled twice to the side, sprang up, and sprinted ahead.

The guards noticed almost at once.

I thought of nothing but running.

The moat lay ahead. I knew it did.

I had deliberately chosen to escape at a point close to it so that I could leap into the river and fake my death.

The downpour was beyond anything I had expected. The rushing water churned before me, its violent whirlpools full of danger. With my meager swimming skills, one leap might truly kill me.

But unless I died, they would never let me go.

Jumping might leave me one slender chance. Staying could only mean death.

So I did not hesitate. I threw myself in.

“Yu’er!”

A heart-rending roar came from behind me, strangely familiar.

I turned my head. It was Li Ju. He stood at the edge of the moat, his body pitching toward the water while guards on both sides held him back with all their strength.

“My lord, you cannot!”

“My lord, don’t be rash!”

“My lord!”

…

I did not understand. If he had already given me away, why had he come here?

But there was no time to think. The flood swallowed me, and my thoughts dissolved into a tide of darkness.