Chapter 3
Chapter 3
For several nights in a row, whenever I woke up, my Little Aunt was nowhere to be found.
She wouldn’t return until morning, stepping through the dew, only to bathe, apply her medicine, and go to sleep.
Her dowry maids whispered that she seemed like a different person.
“The Princess was perfectly normal when we left the Wu Region. Why did she change the moment we entered Northern Qi territory?”
“Exactly. That night at the relay station, I saw her eavesdropping outside Prince Jun’s door. She used to be so timid.”
“Could it be that His Majesty gave her orders to gather military intelligence?”
But then they would reconsider. If she were spying, she should be trying to seduce the Crown Prince of Northern Qi. Why would she submit herself to an unfavored prince?
Unable to make sense of it, they eventually looked at me and sighed. “Princess Mingzhao will have to grow up eventually. When that time comes, are aunt and niece really going to serve the same husband?”
I didn’t understand what they were talking about. All I knew was that wherever Little Aunt went, I followed.
After waking up, Little Aunt would teach me how to read and write. She also studied the culture of Northern Qi herself.
She even painted a portrait of He Lanzheng. Mounted on his horse, he looked heroic and strikingly handsome.
He Lanzheng, however, threw the painting aside and told her to stop her attempts at flattery.
He even said, “Don’t think that just because you’ve pleased this Prince a few times, you can act with such audacity. You are nothing more than a plaything.”
Little Aunt bit her lip, tears welling up and spilling from her eyes.
Yet the moment He Lanzheng left, her tears vanished instantly.
The maids urged Little Aunt not to pin her hopes on He Lanzheng.
According to Northern Qi customs, a father’s concubines were inherited by his son.
Now that the new Emperor had ascended the throne, Little Aunt was destined to become one of his consorts.
Little Aunt merely repeated her usual refrain: “This Princess knows what she is doing.”