chapter 12

No one can say for certain what fate has in store. On this point, Zhen Yuting understands it even better than I do.

To her, I was an unexpected variable, something she had never accounted for. And the only way to eliminate a variable was to make sure it no longer existed.

For more than ten days after I returned from Lady Boyang’s estate, Zhen Yuting didn’t send for me once. I figured she was making preparations.

Sure enough, she finally sent someone to invite me over, saying the lake at the villa had frozen solid and asking me to go ice-skating with her.

Zhen Yuting danced across the ice in her skates, and she even took my hand to pull me along, all warmth and intimacy, as if we had known each other for more than ten years.

When we were nearly at the center of the lake, Zhen Yuting kept turning us in circles. Perhaps we spun one time too many; when she let go, I drifted toward the middle. Cracks quickly spread beneath my feet, and I knew perfectly well this was all arranged by Zhen Yuting.

Those fissures in the ice were like the Crown Prince’s suspicions: deepening, spreading, gradually widening.

I pretended to lose my balance and pitched forward onto the ice, clutching a large slab and flattening myself against it, doing everything I could to steady myself atop the chunk.

The ice was so cold it seeped straight into my bones, but I knew this was the best chance I was going to get. I was waiting, waiting for the Crown Prince to appear.

When I saw the Crown Prince hurrying over with his men to the sound of Zhen Yuting’s sobs, I slowly slid off that piece of ice and dropped into the freezing water below.

I usually don’t resort to self-harm schemes like this. They damage the body. But since the opportunity presented itself, I intended to wring every last bit of use from it.

When I woke up, I was already back in the Marquis of Dingguo’s Mansion. I heard it was the Crown Prince who had brought me back; at this very moment, he was still waiting in the outer hall.

“Thank you, Your Highness, for saving my life. I had wanted to invite Your Highness to admire my sister’s dancing, but I never expected to cause you all this trouble instead.” I forced myself upright and managed a formal bow.

The Crown Prince immediately helped me up and, with a hint of reproach, asked, “You grew up in the south. You could have refused this outing outright.”

I forced a wan smile. “My sister has been in good spirits lately, not quarreling with Your Highness as she used to. Hanyu only thought that as long as my sister could be happy, she and Your Highness would stay on good terms, so Hanyu couldn’t bear to spoil her mood.”

I saw it clearly-anger flickered in the Crown Prince’s eyes.

“You treat her like your own sister,” he said, “but she doesn’t necessarily spare a thought for you.”

After that day, the Crown Prince had people send bird’s nest tonic to me every day, while I lay abed, claiming illness, and refused every tearful apology and sick-visit Zhen Yuting tried to make.