Chapter 5
But Lu Liheng was a very strange man.
For all his desire, he remained cool and distant by day.
He was nothing like the passionate man he became at night.
Not only did he insist on continuing my lessons,
he made me copy texts every day.
Texts about the Three Obediences and Four Virtues.
His roundabout way of telling me to be a virtuous, chaste woman.
My friend, if I observed those rules,
where exactly would that leave you?
But I was still infatuated, so I indulged him.
A face that beautiful
made it very easy to forgive a great many things.
Xiao Langyun’s appointment was soon settled. He entered the Hanlin Academy, with a brilliant future ahead of him.
I saw him once at a palace banquet.
He sat among the lower-ranked guests and seemed to have been drinking. The corners of his eyes were faintly red.
My gaze kept settling on him without my meaning it to.
Until Lu Liheng caught me.
The smile on his face never reached his eyes. Its chill seemed to seep into my very bones.
Here we went again.
Like a haunting ghost.
I cursed under my breath.
Then I got up and went to the imperial garden for air.
Barely the time it took to drink a cup of tea had passed when Xiao Langyun appeared too.
He seemed a little drunk. He stumbled over to a stone wall some distance away and leaned against it.
At the sight of me, he froze.
Only after a while did he collect himself and bow.
“I didn’t realize Your Highness was here. Forgive me for intruding.”
I told him to dispense with the formalities.
Closer now, I could see his face more clearly.
Moonlight gleamed; a soft evening breeze stirred. In his dark red official robes, his features were elegant and clear, with a new, cultivated gentleness.
For a while, neither of us spoke. Only the cicadas made their own boisterous conversation all around us.
Suddenly, he said, “Your Highness, have we met before?”
Perhaps sensing the impertinence of it, he paused, looking bewildered. “It is only that Your Highness seems… very familiar.”
I said nothing.
The potion erased memories of being in love.
Yet he didn’t remember me at all.
Was that because he had loved me from the very first moment he saw me?
My feelings were complicated.
Ah, what a sin I had committed.
How had I turned a perfectly good lover into an unattainable lost love?
In the silence, footsteps suddenly sounded.
An all-too-familiar voice spoke. “I didn’t realize Your Highness and Lord Xiao were here. Forgive my interruption.”
Lu Liheng.
Why was he haunting me again?
His words were loaded with insinuation.
Xiao Langyun frowned. “The princess and I met by chance. Her reputation is precious, Lord Lu. Mind your words.”
Lu Liheng merely laughed softly. “Lord Xiao is certainly concerned for Her Highness.”
The atmosphere inexplicably turned hostile.
I sighed. Whatever!
“I’m going back. Do as you please, gentlemen.”