Chapter 5

Chapter 5

The Empress’s temper worsened by the day. The Crown Prince was as stupid and arrogant as his mother and sister.

He lacked both virtue and ability. The older he grew, the less secure his position became, and my Second and Fourth Brothers fought him fiercely.

Fifth Brother’s marriage was delayed as a result. Unfavored though he was, he remained a commandery prince with his own residence. The Empress wanted to marry him to the niece of Fu Jing’s aunt by marriage, but whenever she raised the matter, Father changed the subject.

Father did not want Fifth Brother boarding the Crown Prince’s ship, but neither would he choose another wife for him.

Then Fifth Brother knelt in the great hall and asked to marry the younger sister of the newly ascendant General Who Pacifies the South-the daughter of the former marquis who had been executed after a disastrous defeat thirteen years earlier.

Rumor said the general had endured ten years of humiliation in the enemy camp. In a single stroke, he killed the southern barbarian king and returned with proof of what had truly happened in his father’s last battle.

For days, the palace spoke of nothing else. The old Marquis’s household had been exonerated, and the Prince of Yan Commandery knelt for hours in the great hall to request the hand of its noble daughter.

I missed Mingru terribly. In the two years since she left the palace, no word had passed between us.

Fifth Brother had begged for his own bride. What would become of Mingru after he married her?

The day after the wedding, Fifth Brother brought his new wife into the palace to formally meet the imperial family. I arrived early, eager to see whether my fifth sister-in-law was a gentle woman.

Mingru!

I clamped my lips shut to keep from crying out.

The princess consort was Mingru!

Mingru!

Standing beside Fifth Brother, she looked over at me with a bright smile. There was no shy awkwardness of a new bride in her manner. She serenely handed me an exquisite pouch.

“Greetings, Seventh Sister.”

As my fingers closed around it, she pinched one corner meaningfully.

“G-Greetings, Fifth Sister-in-law!” Flustered, I lowered my head and curtsied.

So Mingru was the general’s younger sister.

No wonder a lowly maid’s uniform had failed to conceal her innate grace.

No wonder I had always thought the words palace maid did not fit her.

She was the daughter of a marquis’s household.

Mingru was breathtaking that day. Perhaps because she came from a military family, her beauty was bold and brilliant. Standing beside my handsome Fifth Brother, she formed half of a flawless pair.

That night, I held the gold leaf she had sewn into the lining of the pouch and fell asleep smiling.

How wonderful. She had a brother distinguished in battle and a husband as gentle as polished jade. I had always known that Heaven would cherish a girl as good as she was.

For the first time, I even felt a little eager to marry.

Before then, I had thought the palace a den of wolves and the Han household a tiger’s lair. One place was much the same as the other.

But now, as the Princess Consort of Yan Commandery, Mingru could surely ensure that the Hans gave me food, drink, and freedom from beatings and punishments.

See how little I-the so-called precious daughter of the imperial house-desired. I wanted only a quiet life with enough to eat and drink.

When Mingru entered the palace to pay her respects, I cheerfully asked her to protect me once I married into the Han family.

She did not answer. Instead, she examined me carefully and said in a soft voice, “The Han matriarch won’t last many more days. I’m afraid you’ll have to wait three years.”

Oh? Three years of mourning. I would have to endure this place a while longer.

Lost in my thoughts, I did not hear her even softer murmur.

“Fu Jing will have to wait three years too.”

“Seventh Sister, an emperor’s daughter never lacks suitors. There is no hurry. Wait a little. Some things may become entirely different.”

Wait for what? I did not know.

That wait lasted two years.

Then everything truly did become different.

I lived to see Fifth Brother ascend the throne.

Yes-my Fifth Brother, Mingru’s husband, became emperor.