Chapter 2

Chapter 2

The mutilated corpse, of course, could not answer him.

In that boundless dead silence, a fragment of my blurred memory suddenly sharpened, and I remembered a few things.

Ah. So my name was Qin Sang.

Xie Zhixing and I had become husband and wife when we were young. I accompanied him all the way through the imperial examinations, watched him place first in the provincial exam, then first in the metropolitan exam, and now enter the Golden Throne Hall as the undisputed foremost talent of his cohort.

He was handsome-so handsome that everyone else paled beside him. Thus, His Majesty personally appointed him Tanhua Scholar. Though he ranked third, he was given the best official post, making it clear how very satisfied His Majesty was with this rising star.

During the parade through the streets, Xie Zhixing rode at the very back on a white horse with a golden saddle, yet men and women, young and old, crowded around only to look at him. The entire city poured into the streets, and fruit tossed in admiration piled into his carriage.

Upright and refined, a gentleman like jade; among men, his beauty was peerless.

It was also on the way home that the same woman stopped Xie Zhixing and expressed her admiration for him, hinting that he should come to her family to ask for her hand.

Now I remember. That woman was Lin Nianyao, the only legitimate child of the General-in-Chief Who Guards the Nation and the Grand Princess, His Majesty’s beloved niece. When she was very young, she had been granted the title Commandery Princess Lin’an, a golden branch and jade leaf raised amid boundless favor.

The Commandery Princess, dressed in bold red, looked valiant and striking. She carried the shy charm of a young girl, yet also possessed a courage and decisiveness other girls lacked. Coupled with her noble status and her title as the capital’s greatest beauty, she was confident no man could fail to appreciate her.

But Xie Zhixing said that the official duties arranged by His Majesty were demanding, leaving him no mind for anything else, and tactfully refused her.

The Commandery Princess’s face shifted from pale to flushed. She felt utterly humiliated.

Xie Zhixing had deliberately avoided mentioning that he already had a wife, but the Commandery Princess still noticed me. The one who had rejected her was Xie Zhixing, yet the one she resented was me.

A few days later, while Xie Zhixing was away, the Commandery Princess came to find me. Arrogantly, she demanded that I make room for her and give Xie Zhixing to her. In return, she said, she could reluctantly allow me to remain as his concubine.

With that haughty manner, it was as though she had bestowed some tremendous grace upon me.

But I was already his wife. It was not her place to permit what I could or could not be.

I also disliked her tone, as if she regarded Xie Zhixing as her possession.

My Xie Zhixing was a living, breathing person. He was not an object that had to be handed over simply because she had taken a fancy to him.

I refused, and the Commandery Princess felt offended. Even a powerless woman shut away in the inner residence dared defy her now.

She ordered her servants to restrain me, then yanked my hair and shoved my face into a water vat. The sensation of suffocation swept in from every direction. I struggled in the icy water until I was on the verge of drowning, and only then was I abruptly hauled up.

The Commandery Princess looked down at me from above. “I suppose an ignorant village woman like you has never encountered anyone of true status. You certainly don’t realize that I am someone you could never afford to provoke in this lifetime.”

“His Majesty dotes on me most. Even the princesses in the palace have to yield to me. Since childhood, when have I ever failed to obtain anything I wanted?”

My eyes were bloodshot, and I kept coughing. The moment I recovered even slightly, she shoved me into the water again. She did it over and over, watching me suffer under her torment with a smug, delighted expression.

In front of men, she was always bright and candid, or else shy and charming. In front of me, she revealed her true nature completely.

When she had vented enough, she kicked me aside. “Whatever I want, I will have. Qin Sang, since you refuse to know your place, then this Commandery Princess will make sure you don’t even get to be a concubine.”

“Oh, right. You won’t tell Lord Xie about what happened today, will you? After all, he has only just entered court. He has no foundation, no power, and no influence. Naturally, he cannot contend with my Princess’s Residence. If you run to him with complaints, you’ll only add to his troubles.”

She was threatening me.

She was certain that, for Xie Zhixing’s sake, I would swallow the humiliation of what had happened today. That was why she dared torment me without fear. If I never mentioned it to Xie Zhixing, then her image in his eyes would remain intact.

She had deliberately used this method to deal with me so that she would not leave behind any wounds or evidence. The underhanded methods of palace nobles were countless.

I watched her leave in silence, but I was not cowed by her threats. As soon as Xie Zhixing returned, I told him everything that had happened that day and warned him to be especially on guard against the Princess’s Residence.

Neither of us had ever been the sort to share only good news and hide the bad. We had long been used to keeping nothing from each other, advancing and retreating together.