Chapter 7
Xiao Yichi gave a cold laugh.
“Then why didn’t you choose Eighth Brother in our previous life? You insisted on choosing before your sister. Wasn’t that because you wanted me?”
He bent slightly, bringing his eyes level with mine.
“Without me, how will you become empress? Can you really give that up?”
I took a step back, my expression unchanged.
Inside, I felt only irritation.
He had always been conceited. Otherwise, he would never have managed to lose and regain the position of crown prince three times in our previous life.
Without my father, my brothers, and me cleaning up after him,
he could never have reached that position at all.
“Whatever you say, Your Highness. Is there anything else?”
He scoffed. “I’m giving you this one chance. Tomorrow morning, I expect to hear that you’ve gone to the palace.”
Then he turned, leaped onto the wall, and disappeared.
I paid him no mind.
Early the next morning, word came from the Eighth Prince’s residence asking my sister and me to go to the palace together.
Our wedding robes were to be made on an expedited schedule.
The Third Prince and Xiao Shengjing stood straight-backed at the palace gate.
My sister laughed softly, covering her mouth and nose with her handkerchief.
“Ah Ying, don’t those two look like a pair of cabbages?”
I looked over. Xiao Shengjing wore a moon-white martial robe.
The Third Prince wore the pale green my sister liked.
From a distance, they really did resemble cabbages.
Suppressing a smile, I looked at Xiao Shengjing.
Only when I drew closer did I notice that the tips of his ears had reddened again.
My sister and the Third Prince walked ahead.
Xiao Shengjing and I followed two or three paces behind.
“Why are your ears red, Your Highness? Do you need another layer?”
I spoke softly, teasing him on purpose.
From the corner of my eye, I saw his ears grow redder still.
Even his earlobes flushed.
“No. It must be the heat.”
My smile widened.
As we approached the empress’s Wuqi Palace, I spotted someone drawing nearer along the opposite path.
Xiao Yichi looked over with a half-smile.
“What a coincidence. Have Third Brother and Eighth Brother both brought their fiancées to pay their respects to Mother?”
He put particular emphasis on “fiancées.”
Xiao Shengjing stepped in front of me, blocking his view.
“Since you’re here too, Sixth Brother, let’s go in and greet Mother together.”
Xiao Yichi snorted.
He gave me a meaningful look.
I kept my head lowered and followed the others in to greet the empress.
She smiled at my sister and me.
“I knew I had chosen well. Both couples are truly made for each other.”
Then she turned to Xiao Yichi.
“Now that your third and eighth brothers are engaged, is there a young lady you like? I can arrange a marriage for you too.”
Xiao Yichi was sensitive to every slight.
In our previous life, words like these from the empress would have sent him home in a fury.
He would have felt she did not value him.
They were brothers born of the same mother, yet she favored the other two.
He shot me a warning look.
I stood perfectly still.
After a long pause, even the empress’s smile began to falter.
“Mother, there is no one I like. Did you have someone in mind?”
Her smile deepened again.
She loved matchmaking above all.
“What about the Minister of Revenue’s second daughter by his principal wife?”
Xiao Yichi’s expression stiffened.
“I leave it to you, Mother.”
Delighted, the empress decided to hold another banquet in the coming days.
The staff from the Imperial Wardrobe arrived, and Xiao Yichi looked puzzled.
“Are you having your summer clothes made, Mother?”
“They are here to begin the two young ladies’ wedding robes.”