Chapter 2

Chapter 2

It was the middle of the night, yet the red lanterns filling our courtyard were so still you could hear people breathe.

My father looked at Tenth Highness Jiang Shi, opened his mouth, shut it, opened it again, and in the end only managed, “Absurd.”

My grandfather tried very hard to press down the corners of his mouth as he said, “His Majesty’s grace is boundless.”

My great-grandfather said, “We have wronged Tenth Highness. Everyone should rest for now. We will enter the palace first thing tomorrow morning to plead guilty.”

I arranged for Jiang Shi to stay in the main courtyard while I made do in a side courtyard for the night. Everything else could wait until we had seen His Majesty tomorrow.

I was talking with great enthusiasm when I turned around and saw Jiang Shi frozen in place.

“You… you’re not sleeping in my room tonight?”

“If Father finds out, he may blame me for not taking proper care of you.”

The day before yesterday, he had been riding and shooting arrows on the drill grounds. Who was he putting on this delicate little white flower act for?

The next day, my great-grandfather, my grandfather, my father, and I all knelt in neat rows outside Qinzheng Hall to plead guilty.

His Majesty said he had known all along that I was a woman disguised as a man. “But Minister Yan is truly after my own heart. I cherish talent!”

I waved my hands frantically to show that even if His Majesty had not bestowed this marriage, I would still be willing to give my life in his service.

His Majesty looked at Jiang Shi kneeling beside me. “My own son cannot even handle this small matter. There is no use keeping him.”

“Drag him away and grant him white silk.”

Jiang Shi was dragged half a meter away with tears brimming in his eyes. I hurriedly shuffled forward on my knees until I was before His Majesty.

“Your Majesty, I fell in love with Tenth Highness… no, Tenth Princess at first sight. It has to be him…”

His Majesty waved for the Black Armor Guards to drag Jiang Shi back. “Now that is more like it. When a young couple lives together, he handles the home while you handle affairs outside.”

“Elders of the Yan family, do not worry. Old Ten will certainly take good care of Yan Yu.”

Jiang Shi did indeed take care of me with meticulous attention to every detail.

But I felt it could not be that simple. “Tenth Highness watches me every day without so much as blinking.”

“Does His Majesty suspect our family?”

My grandfather waved both hands so fast they nearly left afterimages. “It wasn’t me! This old man has been busy fighting crickets lately…”

Halfway through, Grandfather sat back down.

My great-grandfather slapped him across the back of the head. “Where did you get crickets?”

Grandfather laughed dryly twice. “From… from His Majesty.”

I stopped my great-grandfather before he could keep hitting him. “Great-Grandfather, it’s just a few crickets. Surely it isn’t that serious!”

My mother stepped out at just the right time to take charge of the situation. Wasn’t the problem simply that Jiang Shi had too much free time?

“Have him manage all the household affairs with me.”

My father said, “That is Tenth Highness.”

My mother said, “That is my daughter-in-law.”

In the end, it was my great-grandmother who made the final decision. Since Jiang Shi had nothing to do, he would manage the household accounts with my mother during the day and practice spearwork with her at night.

Within a few days, Jiang Shi was exhausted in both body and soul, falling asleep the moment his head touched the pillow.

I thought Jiang Shi would be unable to bear the hardship and return to the palace, but he persisted and even said my family was peaceful.

Jiang Shi said seriously, “It isn’t like the palace, where everyone is forever fighting for favor and there are endless books to memorize. Besides, your household accounts are quite easy to sort out.”

Before long, Jiang Shi had mastered managing the household, throwing a spear, and keeping an eye on me.

My mother simply became a hands-off manager.

My father said Jiang Shi managing the household was quite good. “This way, His Majesty can also know our family harbors no disloyalty, and you can go even farther.”

I felt sorry for him. He had once had a chance to fight for the throne, and now he was trapped in the inner residence.

So every few days, I brought Jiang Shi some novel little trinket.

With everyone deliberately maintaining the peace, things actually remained calm.

Although my mother did think it was a little strange for Jiang Shi, a tall and strapping man in a gauze skirt, to move around the inner residence.

I thought what was even stranger was that every single night, I had to return to the main room to sleep.

The moment I slept in the study, His Majesty assumed Jiang Shi had not taken good care of me and wanted to grant Jiang Shi white silk.

The white silk Jiang Shi had received was enough for the two of us to each embroider a quilt cover.

Jiang Shi said that would not do. “This white silk isn’t as soft as the satin you brought back. It would be uncomfortable to sleep on.”

Confirmed. A true princess.

Under the threat of His Majesty’s white silk, Jiang Shi saw me off to morning court every day with bleary eyes.

I could not bear it, so I shoved Jiang Shi back under the blankets. “Don’t worry about me, and don’t go pay respects to my mother either.”

Ever since Jiang Shi married in, my mother had not slept in a single morning.

Jiang Shi waved his hand and said he had to take care of me in every possible way.

But this meticulous care had become a little too boundaryless.

He embroidered two green bamboo stalks on my chest bindings, and he trained his chest muscles furiously with my great-grandmother, saying something about not embarrassing me.

After training, he even burrowed into my bed and asked me to inspect the results.

I was so worried that I rubbed my face at the government office, considering sending someone home with a message that I had to review the salt tax ledgers tonight and would not be returning.

If it came to it, I could make do in the carriage for the night.

I was weighed down with worry, but everyone else thought I had discovered something wrong with this year’s salt tax accounts.

Treasures from the provincial governors flowed into my house like running water, then flowed silently from my house into the state treasury.

With a smile hiding a knife, His Majesty told me to teach those parasites a lesson.

I said, “How hard can that be?” Then I lowered my head, picked out a few antiques from the gifts the provincial governors had sent me, and bestowed them back to those same governors in His Majesty’s name.

His Majesty’s eyes lit up. “This move of yours will make them think I am an unfathomable ruler.”

“The student has surpassed the master.”