Chapter 3
Chapter 3
Chu Xingzhi stayed in the Princess Manor for a full three days.
He had been stiff and awkward when he first arrived, but after three days, he had learned to be quite proficient.
He was like a blade forced to sharpen its edge-the more he was ground down, the smoother he became to handle, and the more silent he grew.
On the morning of the fourth day, he took Chu Ying and left the Princess Manor.
No sooner had he walked out the door than someone else arrived at my gates.
“Anping!”
Zhaoyang’s eyes were rimmed with red, her voice sharp and piercing.
“What did you do to Xingzhi?”
I didn’t answer.
I merely raised my hand, revealing a faint red mark on the side of my neck.
It wasn’t deep.
But it was enough to make the blood drain from her face in an instant.
I tilted my head with a smile, as if asking a genuine, perhaps even confused, question.
“Imperial Sister, a man and a woman alone together for three days.”
“What do you think could have happened?”
She trembled with rage and raised her hand to slap me.
I caught it firmly, then slowly and deliberately repeated her own words back to her, verbatim.
“Zhaoyang, you once said…”
“That you don’t want things used by others.”
I let go of her and reached out to smooth her sleeve, my movements almost tender.
“So, a consort used by another…”
“Do you still want him?”
On my fourteenth birthday.
Jingping carved a small wooden horse for me with his own hands.
The wood was ordinary, but the craftsmanship was meticulous, and its value lay in the sentiment.
Zhaoyang saw it and wanted it.
I refused.
It was a gift from Jingping; how could I just hand it over?
So, she sent people to take it by force.
After snatching it, she gave it a casual glance and immediately threw it onto the brick floor.
Standing before the splintered wood, her voice was soft and sweet, yet chillingly indifferent.
“Things used by others.”
“I don’t want them.”
Later, Jingping was forced to carve many more for her.
He carved until his fingertips were calloused, until blood seeped into the grain of the wood.
He continued until Zhaoyang grew bored and couldn’t even be bothered to look at them.
Zhaoyang ended up wanting the Chu Xingzhi I had used after all.
Just like that little wooden horse back then.
She found him dirty.
But she hated the idea of me having him even more.
And so, she insisted on taking him.
To take what she knew was already taken-that was her nature.
This obsessive streak of madness was exactly like mine.
Otherwise, how could we be called sisters?
It went exactly as I expected.
Clutching the Crimson Feather Order, a life-saving talisman bestowed by the Late Emperor, Zhaoyang knelt in the snow for an entire night.
She waited until dawn, finally forcing the New Emperor to grant her an audience.
The next day, an imperial decree was issued.
Princess Zhaoyang and Chu Xingzhi were ordered to be married within one month.
Zhaoyang believed she had triumphed, her face full of smug satisfaction.
But Jingping never made a losing trade.
With a light stroke of his vermilion brush, he let the ink fall silently, yet the words cut like a blade.
According to the old laws of our dynasty:
An imperial consort may not hold office or participate in politics.
When Imperial Father chose a husband for Zhaoyang back then, how could he have been willing to follow this old precedent?
He had betrothed the brilliant Tanhua to the pearl of his palm.
He wanted both prestige and actual power for her.
Thus, Chu Xingzhi was still allowed to enter officialdom, and his position as the heir to the marquisate remained secure on his head.
But things were different now.
Once the old law passed through the New Emperor’s hands, it became a lethal weapon.
With one stroke, Jingping cut deep.
He stripped Chu Xingzhi of his title as heir and severed his path to a political career.
What had he given Zhaoyang?
A consort-a man caged by the imperial family.
Not the Tanhua who once stood in the golden palace, his robes as white as snow.
That night, Jingping sent someone to deliver a box.
I opened it to find the Crimson Feather Order lying quietly inside.
I smiled knowingly.
After all these years, this token had finally returned to its rightful owner.
I closed the box and tapped my finger on the lid.
The first item was in my hands.
Next.
It was time for the second.