Chapter 10
Time passed.
Three years went by in a blink.
The boy-and-girl twins I’d given birth to were already two and a half.
My husband and I looked at their faces, so like Dadiao’s, and could only lavish them with love.
We both truly loved Dadiao.
One day, we took the children to eat at the largest restaurant in the city.
In the distance, we saw troops returning.
They were the army from the frontier.
Everyone was saying the missing crown prince had gone to the border and distinguished himself in battle.
The streets were packed with people.
From a second-floor window, we looked down at the handsome man riding a magnificent horse in that long procession…
Who else could it be but Dadiao?!
Dadiao was the crown prince?!
Everything made sense.
Why he’d been so badly wounded. Why he always seemed so impossibly noble. Why he was always so languid…
My husband and I were both happy and disheartened.
Happy that Dadiao was all right.
Disheartened that he was a man neither of us could have.
While we were still caught between joy and sorrow.
The palace funeral bell began to toll.
The emperor was dead!
Rumor had it that he had stubbornly held on until the crown prince returned, so he could pass the throne to him before breathing his last.
They also said the emperor and empress had loved each other deeply, and he wanted to leave the best of everything to their child.
They even said his previous affection for the noble consort and her child had all been an act. The crown prince had always been his true favorite. He’d let people hunt the prince down only to test him and help him grow.
Just like my father giving me a tiny dowry and saying it was to teach me virtue and frugality.
Dadiao ascended the throne.
While I nursed my wounded heart, the court was in turmoil.
The noble consort’s faction was purged.
The late emperor was buried, Dadiao took the throne, and so on.
Seven families in the capital had their homes confiscated.
Every one of them was immensely wealthy and powerful.
Only after two months did the streets begin to bustle again.
When my husband came home from work, I hurried to ask, “Can you see His Majesty?”
He shook his head dejectedly.
“You’re utterly useless!”
I couldn’t help scolding him.
He scolded me right back. “You sit at home eating for free and don’t earn a single copper, yet you have the nerve to insult me? If you’re so capable, go find him yourself!”
My husband’s words gave me an idea.
The next day, I took the two children to the palace gates.
A junior eunuch looked at me curiously. “What brings you here?”
On the verge of tears, I said, “I’ve come to find His Majesty. I’m the wife he had among the common people, and I’ve borne him two children. He can’t refuse to acknowledge us.”
The young eunuch’s eyes widened in shock. He looked at me, looked at my son and daughter, then rushed off.
He even fell flat on his face.
I was brought inside.
The eunuch fawned on me excessively.
After a while, I saw Dadiao.
He wore informal black robes embroidered in gold, looking majestic and noble.
That face of his could still turn the world upside down.
When he came in, I rushed over and hugged him. “Dadiao! I’ve waited so desperately for you!”
“Have you been well these past few years? Have you suffered terribly?”
“I’ve been so worried. Don’t leave again. If you must go, take me with you.”
“Everyone else cares how high you’ve climbed. Only I care how tired the climb has made you.”