Chapter 3
Chapter 3
The Crown Prince had been waiting in my bedchamber for a long time.
“beloved consort, you were gone for quite a while.”
My expression remained calm. “My elder sister missed me.”
“Did beloved consort meet anyone else?”
His slender fingers held a scroll. “For instance, Young General Xie?”
“It was merely a chance encounter.”
The Crown Prince rose and brushed the snow from the ends of my hair.
“Today, a retainer told me Young General Xie has taken a concubine.”
His touch was gentle, yet it felt like a snake coiling around me. “Why does that woman look so very much like beloved consort?”
I smiled prettily. “This consort simply has a common sort of face.”
He froze for a moment, then laughed. “beloved consort is stunningly beautiful. There are few like you in this world.”
“It hardly matters if others long for you.”
He withdrew his hand, his gaze turning cold. “After all, no one would dare fight the Eastern Palace for what is mine.”
I immediately retorted, “Would His Majesty not dare either?”
I had stepped precisely on his sore spot. He smiled darkly, swept his sleeve, and left.
Xie Liuzheng thought the same thing.
So the next morning at court, he said to His Majesty with the utmost respect, “Regarding the matter of my reward, this subject has another thought.”
The Crown Prince’s back went rigid, his mind racing for a countermeasure.
“Speak freely, my dear minister.” His Majesty admired him greatly.
“This subject…”
With a perfectly serious expression, he said, “Likes the Crown Prince.”
The smile collapsed from His Majesty’s aged face.
None of the ministers dared make a sound.
“This subject wishes to move into the Eastern Palace.”
Xie Liuzheng said, “So that I may see His Royal Highness the Crown Prince day and night.”
“Absurd!”
For once, the Crown Prince disregarded all decorum and rebuked him in public.
Morning court broke up on bad terms. Before leaving, His Majesty pulled Xie Liuzheng aside and asked, “Is this why you have kept away from women all these years?”
His face was full of sincerity. “Precisely.”
His Majesty sighed again and again.
After court, the Crown Prince came to my chambers to drink tea.
One cup after another.
He simply refused to speak.
The Grand Protector had business with him. Before leaving, he said coldly, “beloved consort truly is easy to love.”
As soon as he left, I had the Shadow Guard Xie Liuzheng had given me send him a letter.
Xie Liuzheng replied very quickly, every word ringing with conviction.
“If it means I can see you day and night, what does it matter if I endure his humiliation?
“If it means I can see you day and night, what does it matter if you and I call each other sisters?”
Madman.
Chapter 5
At the winter palace banquet,
the Crown Prince spent the entire time playing with my hand right in front of Xie Liuzheng.
His Majesty said the matter of that previous reward no longer counted.
“My dear minister, what else do you want?”
His dark eyes fixed on the Crown Prince’s hand, and he said to His Majesty with devout candor, “This subject wishes to be your son.”
Around the banquet, guests choked on their drinks and coughed.
His Majesty remained perfectly composed and corrected him. “Fifteen years ago, when Ah Lin died saving me, I already took you in as my adopted son.”
Ah Lin was Xie Liuzheng’s father.
He had fought at His Majesty’s side through life and death, as close as brothers.
Xie Liuzheng came over to toast the Crown Prince.
“If we cannot be husband and wife, we can still be brothers.”
The Crown Prince smiled calmly. “Ah Zheng has always been my sworn younger brother.”
Cups clinked throughout the banquet, and the sounds of the jiqin and konghou barely covered their conversation.
Xie Liuzheng said, “Since we are brothers, what is yours is mine.”
The wine cup in my hand trembled.
The Crown Prince steadied it for me.
His left hand remained beneath mine, supporting it, and for a long while he did not withdraw.
“Anything else is acceptable. The position of Crown Prince is not.”
As expected, that was what he cared about most.
Xie Liuzheng chuckled softly. “What would this subject want with your position of Crown Prince?
“All this subject wishes for is peace throughout the realm, to resign from office early, and to take my wife roaming beneath Jiangnan’s spring rain and Saibei’s heavy snow.”
This was what he had once promised me.
To take me far from the capital, free and unrestrained.
But now, I could only be locked away in the depths of the palace.
I turned my eyes aside and tried to pull my hand from the Crown Prince’s grasp, but he held me so tightly it hurt.
Xie Liuzheng asked him whether, aside from the position of Crown Prince, anything else was truly acceptable.
The Crown Prince’s gaze was dark and deep. “My wife is not acceptable either.”
Xie Liuzheng met his eyes, undercurrents surging between them.
I smiled and said, “General Xie certainly knows how to joke.”
The Crown Prince smiled along with me, but the smile never reached his eyes.
Right in front of Xie Liuzheng, he gripped my jaw, his voice icy. “Even when you are dead, you will still be mine.”
The banquet dance was nearly over, and the confrontation between the two of them was drawing more and more attention.
He withdrew his hand, wiped it clean, and asked me gently, “I am rather good at joking too. Why does beloved consort not praise me?”
I kept the smile frozen on my face and did not speak for a long while.
“Come.”
The Crown Prince handed me a flask of wine from beside him. “beloved consort, pour wine for Young General Xie.”
I obediently took the wine flask and filled Xie Liuzheng’s goblet.
“How can a toast have no blessing?”
The Crown Prince seemed to take an interest, watching my movements as he said, “beloved consort, then wish Young General Xie that one day he may grow old together with the one he loves, their affection unwavering and free of doubt.”
He could grow old together with any noble young lady in this world.
Anyone but me.
I forced the words out with difficulty. “May Young General Xie…”
Before I could finish,
he drank it all in one gulp, then turned the empty goblet upside down before the Crown Prince’s table.
“Many thanks, Your Highness.”
“There is no need for thanks between sworn brothers.”
Xie Liuzheng turned and left.
I raised my hand to drink from my own cup as well, but the Crown Prince blocked my goblet.
“beloved consort cannot hold her liquor. There is no need to drink.”
His voice was warm and gentle, as if nothing had happened at all.