Chapter 3

The wedding candle cast its light over Shen Yi.

A little of it seemed to reach his cold eyes, too.

“Pretty words.”

He released my chin and turned toward the door. “Jiang Shu, don’t try your little tricks on me. Or I’ll make you regret setting foot in this house.”

I blinked. As his figure disappeared through the doorway, I went on to answer his second question.

“I’m not afraid of you. You were just too close.”

But he couldn’t have heard.

I had barely sighed when Cuixi returned with a fresh pot of wedding wine.

She set it down and looked around. “Where is His Highness?”

“Gone,” I said, rather dejectedly.

“Gone? But you haven’t shared the wedding wine.” Cuixi was distressed. Then, seeing my face, she tried to comfort me. “Perhaps he had something urgent to attend to. At least he lifted your veil. That counts as completing the ceremony.”

I looked at the doorway, then at her.

In the end, I didn’t tell her the veil had slipped off on its own.

I had embroidered those mandarin ducks myself, stitch by stitch.

Shen Yi was too much.

Worse still, he never returned to the room that night.

The more I thought about it, the more hurt I felt. On our way to the palace, my eyes began to redden.

Clutching my sleeve, I was just about to argue with Shen Yi, who was walking ahead of me, when I looked up and found he had already stopped.

I walked straight into his back.

My feet tangled in my sudden confusion, and I toppled backward without warning.

Fortunately, Shen Yi caught me.

Out came the question I had meant to ask. “Shen Yi, where did you go last night?”

We both froze.

I had only just registered the situation in front of me.

He probably hadn’t expected such a question to come out of nowhere.

Passing palace servants hurriedly bowed and scurried away at the sight of us.

Only then did Shen Yi frown and release me. But he did not step back.

We were very close.

So close that lifting my head might make it bump his chin.

I could almost smell the faint medicinal scent beneath the agarwood fragrance about him.

Why would he smell of medicine?

“My affairs are none of your concern. Jiang Shu, I trust I needn’t tell you what you may and may not say before my father.”

By the time I came to my senses, he had turned and walked several paces ahead.

He didn’t want anyone to know he had not returned to the room last night.

Neither did I.

It was hardly something to boast about, and letting it get out would only worry Father and Mother.

I pouted and hurried after him.

After we paid our respects to the emperor in the Hall of Diligent Governance, I stood obediently beside Shen Yi, playing the same quiet, docile mute I always had.

The emperor looked pleased with us. After a few words of advice, he had someone escort me to pay my respects to the empress.

As I turned away, Shen Yi seemed to glance at me.

Perhaps he wanted me to keep playing mute before the empress, too.

Her Palace of Eternal Spring was not far from the Hall of Diligent Governance. We arrived in about the time it took to drink a cup of tea.

I greeted the empress with the proper formalities, and she smilingly told me to rise.

“It’s been a while since I last saw you. How have you grown so thin?” she asked with concern. “Has Prince Yan been mistreating you?”

I had married Shen Yi only yesterday.

However horribly I had been treated, I could hardly have wasted away overnight.

“Do you even have to ask? She’s a mute who never speaks, and my brother is cold as ice…” Princess Zhaoyang answered for me.

Before she could finish, the empress stopped her with a look.

“Is that any way to speak to your sister-in-law? Where are your manners?”

I pressed my lips together and said nothing.

The empress glanced at me and continued earnestly, “Ah Shu, Prince Yan has spent years among prisons and criminals. All that bloodshed is bound to make him unfeeling. If he mistreats you, come to His Majesty and me. We shall see that you receive justice.”

“I know you are a good girl. Marrying Prince Yan has certainly been hard on you. You should come and visit me often. With me to protect you, he wouldn’t dare do anything to you.”

“In truth, I bear the blame for failing to bring him up properly. It has made him what he is today. And now you are the one who must suffer.”

Princess Zhaoyang looked me up and down and snorted. “Mother, you are too kind, still trying to protect her. She chose not to marry my elder brother the crown prince. Now she’s married a living lord of hell. Let’s see how long she survives.”

“Zhaoyang, was your father’s last punishment not enough?”

Princess Zhaoyang immediately closed her mouth, though she looked unconvinced.

I lowered my eyes and clutched my handkerchief, listening to them talk back and forth.

When I still said nothing, they changed the subject to their trip to the summer palace in half a month’s time.

I raised my head. Pinching my handkerchief, I said softly, “Prince Yan is very good.”

“He is handsome, he is a good person, and he treats me well.”