Chapter 2

Chapter 2

After Meng Yuanxi awoke, the matter of her disguising herself as a man to sit the imperial examinations caused an uproar. In the end, it was the Crown Prince who protected her with all his might, sparing her from punishment.

The Son of Heaven personally set questions to test her, yet she composed a poem in seven steps and spoke with effortless eloquence. She presented the Memorial on Policy, offering counsel on four matters: controlling officials, pacifying the people, enriching the treasury, and governing the army.

Her policy essay was stirring enough to rouse the deaf, drawing the attention of court and commoners alike. The Son of Heaven cherished talent and granted her a special pardon.

For a time, she was unrivaled in the Capital.

She became the legendary woman on everyone’s lips, the one even the Crown Prince had lowered himself for.

All sorts of romantic tales about them spread through the streets and alleys.

After I was rescued, I spent half a year living in seclusion. During that time, the Crown Prince came to see me a few times.

But every time he came, he mentioned that Brother Meng he had met among the common folk.

The admiration in his eyes nearly spilled over. The more often he brought that person up, the less often he came to see me.

In his telling, that Brother Meng was a person of great talent, broad vision, and unrestrained freedom-the very things he, as a child of the imperial family, yearned for but could never obtain. That person understood his thoughts, and he regarded that person as a kindred spirit.

At first, his eyes were full of admiration. Later, he slowly changed. A faint melancholy always lingered between his brows, and whenever he faced me, he seemed to have something to say but could not bring himself to speak.

I suppose by then he already knew that Brother Meng, the one whose interests aligned with his and whom he regarded as a confidant, was actually a woman.

A woman who had made his heart stir.

The rumors about the two of them had long since reached my ears. It was said the Crown Prince rode with her on Southern Mountain and taught her to draw a bow and shoot wild geese.

For her sake, the Crown Prince searched through every collection in the palace archives, all to find a rare surviving copy of a book she had mentioned offhand.

My elder brother asked me in bewilderment, “How can you accept the Crown Prince’s change of heart so calmly? How can you agree to break off the engagement so easily? You clearly liked him so much…”

Because I had once been obsessive. I had once tried to force what could not be forced. But since his heart had already changed, what could I have left except my own humiliation?

Since I already knew the outcome, I might as well let go with grace and keep the last shred of dignity.

“I am the one who no longer wants him…”

When my brother heard those words, his eyes filled with shock. He did not understand why I, too, had changed.

My marriage to him had been arranged by the Late Empress before her death. The Jiang Clan had prospered for a hundred years, and by my grandfather’s generation, three generations of grand secretaries had already come from our line. The Late Empress had wanted the Jiang Family to become the Crown Prince’s support.

Now, he had cast aside that support with his own hands.

The emperor was furious over the Crown Prince’s insistence on dissolving the engagement and summoned my father to offer him a round of appeasement.

After breaking off the engagement, the Crown Prince could not wait to submit a memorial requesting that Meng Yuanxi be installed as the Crown Princess of the Eastern Palace.

In the end, His Majesty declared that both the principal consort and the secondary consort would enter the residence at the same time, and that the secondary consort would come from the Aristocratic Yang Clan.

Afraid I would be upset, my father and brother suggested I go stay at a country estate for a while.

But I refused. The grand show in the Capital had only just begun. How could I leave?

When I met Meng Yuanxi, her eyes were full of pity, and within that pity was an inexplicable sense of superiority. There was always contempt in her gaze.

“Miss Jiang, proper young ladies like you are all so dignified you look exactly like puppets on strings-dull, boring, and rigid. Is that why the Crown Prince grew tired of you?”

As she spoke, she even shook her head, as if she found such dignity utterly beneath her.

If there was such a thing as killing someone by stabbing straight into the heart, this was it.