Chapter 3
Chapter 3
Qi Yan killed quickly.
After the Minister of Rites came the Director of Livestock, the Iron Tax Bureau, and the Chief Steward of the royal court’s Internal Affairs Office.
With every person he killed, one less squad of soldiers pillaged the streets of Wuxu for grain, and one less wagon of salt was seized beyond Changyuan Pass.
But the denunciations within the court grew louder by the day.
They said the Fourth Prince had been bewitched by a Southern Woman, using the veteran officials of Northern Yan to establish authority for her.
They said I was a seductress ruining the country, a demon blade sent by Great Liang.
The most violent confrontation occurred when the First Prince, Qi Chong, led his troops to surround the Princess Residence.
The wind and snow were so heavy that night that one could barely see a shadow. I heard the residence gates groaning under the force of a battering ram. Qingwu was trembling with fear, but I put on my wedding gown and pulled a gold hairpin from my hair.
When Qi Yan pushed the door open, he found me standing amidst the firelight.
He froze for a moment. “What are you doing?”
“If they break in, I will die on your bed,” I said. “Let both Northern Yan and Great Liang see exactly what this peace marriage has bought.”
He looked at me and suddenly laughed.
“Shen Zhaoxue, why are you always thinking about how to make your death valuable?”
“Am I supposed to live cheaply then?” I snapped.
His smile faded.
The sound of the ramming outside grew heavier. He walked up to me, reached out to take the gold hairpin from my hand, and slowly tucked it back into my hair.
“Living is harder than dying,” he said. “I will teach you.”
The moment the gates were breached, Qi Yan walked up the steps, coughing up blood.
He had only twenty personal guards behind him.
Qi Chong sat atop his horse, his armor reflecting the firelight as he shouted, “Qi Yan, hand over that Nanliang witch!”
Qi Yan asked, “On what grounds?”
“She has poisoned the princes and brought chaos to the court!”
“Where is your evidence?”
Qi Chong sneered. “I have Father’s verbal command.”
Qi Yan nodded and raised his hand.
His personal guards pushed forward a blood-soaked eunuch.
Kneeling in the snow, the eunuch confessed in a trembling voice that Qi Chong had bribed the imperial physicians to administer a slow-acting poison to the Old King, intending to frame me for the crime.
Qi Chong’s expression shifted.
Qi Yan remained gentle. “Tonight, my elder brother led private troops to surround the Peace Marriage Mansion with the intent of driving the Princess to her death and destroying our treaty. According to the law, he shall be executed.”
As his voice fell, the twenty personal guards blew their bone whistles in unison.
From deep within the curtain of snow, the black-armored Imperial Guards surged forward like a tide.
It turned out he had been waiting for this night all along.
Even as Qi Chong was dragged from his horse, he continued to curse me.
Qi Yan did not look at him; he only turned back to look at me.
Across the wind and snow, his lips were pale, but there was a bright spark of fire in the depths of his eyes.
In that moment, I suddenly realized that while I thought I was trapped in his cage, he was in a cage as well.
It was just that his cage was this man-eating royal court.