Chapter 5
An hour later,
a palace maid confessed.
She had taken money from Shen Rushi’s personal nurse and replaced the water in my Guanyin vase.
The money lay on an attendant’s tray.
The maid was covered in blood, her breath barely audible.
“I was to leave the palace tomorrow. The nurse came to me and said everything outside the palace cost money. All I had to do was this one small thing, and I would never want for food or clothes again.”
“I am guilty. Please spare my life, Your Majesty.”
Shen Rushi’s face turned ashen.
“It hardly warrants death.”
Seeing the mockery at my lips, she frowned.
“Everyone has compassion. She is already in such a pitiful state. Surely that is enough.”
I looked at her.
“Where was your compassion when His Highness wanted me dead?”
“Or was Nurse Wang following your orders?”
Shen Rushi fell silent.
“I care nothing for worldly titles. Naturally, I would not stoop to compete with you.”
Xiao Shiyu cast me a cold glance.
“Bring Nurse Wang. She may belong to Ah Ru, but that does not mean she acted for her.”
The empress’s teacup halted in her hand.
She gave the crown prince a long look.
In the end, she said nothing.
An incense stick’s time later,
Nurse Wang knelt trembling on the floor.
“It was the second young miss. She admires His Highness and asked me to make arrangements for her when I accompanied the eldest miss into the palace.”
“I am guilty. Please spare me, Your Highness.”
Xiao Shiyu’s mocking gaze settled on my face.
“What have you to say now?”
I raised my eyes and met his.
“Plenty.”
“Where did a banknote for five hundred taels come from? Check the counterfoil. Ask the issuing bank. Find its owner.”
Mother panicked.
“You borrowed it from your sister.”
She had barely finished when someone snickered.
“An elder sister lending her younger sister money to sabotage her own marriage? She must be either foolish or blind.”
Mother had no answer.
“Stop the investigation!”
Shen Rushi looked stubbornly at Xiao Shiyu.
“I gave Nurse Wang the money.”
His expression froze.
“You?”
She lowered her lashes, looking aloof and fragile at once.
“She loves Your Highness. She wishes us to share one husband, like Ehuang and Nüying. I have never liked to contend with others, much less my own sister.”
“Your Highness, if you love me, please make room for her too.”
Xiao Shiyu was overcome with tenderness.
“You are too generous, too kind. When others press you so cruelly, why must you defend them?”
Shen Rushi recovered her calm composure. Reaching out, she removed the sachet at my waist.
Mother had fastened it there herself on our way into the palace.
She said osmanthus brought wealth and honor. It was auspicious.
So that was what its good fortune meant: protection for her favorite daughter.
Before everyone, Shen Rushi turned out its lining.
Inside was a roughly formed character: xie.
Green trees formed its yu component; a winding river reflected mountain peaks to make a barely recognizable dou.
And the crown prince’s childhood name was Jingxie.
Everyone drew a quiet, startled breath. No one dared speak again.
Shen Rushi said calmly,
“My sister has loved His Highness since childhood. All the discord between us arose from this.”
“My compassion embraces all living beings, and naturally that includes my sister. Only by fulfilling her wish can I attain spiritual completeness and find true peace within.”
“Your Highness, grant her wish, and mine as well.”
Xiao Shiyu clenched the sachet, breathing hard.
He could not bear to turn his anger on Shen Rushi.
Instead, with a crash,
a bowl of tea shattered at my feet.
“Shen Qingheng, using your sister to force my hand—have you no shame?”
“If you are so desperate to marry me, go kneel in the imperial garden until Father gives his consent himself.”
My sachet had supposedly revealed my designs on the crown prince.
Whether I entered the Eastern Palace or not, remaining with the Shen family meant death.
Shen Rushi had burned every bridge, forcing me aboard her boat if I wanted to survive.
But I had taken that road in my last life.
Besieged on every side, surrounded by enemies,
I had died without even a place to be buried.
I closed my eyes.
I breathed out slowly. When I opened them again, there was only calm.
“Your Highness is mistaken.”
“There is indeed someone I love. But it is not Your Highness. It is Xiao Xu, Prince Ning.”
At those words,
Xiao Shiyu’s smile froze at his lips. His eyes turned cold in an instant…