Chapter 3

Chapter 3

In this harem, whose life wasn’t bitter?

Except Li Qiyue’s.

Now that she was carrying his child, Zhao Yan and Li Qiyue were even more loving than before. He still never turned over the tablets for any of the other palaces. Every day, he accompanied the Noble Consort on walks through the Imperial Garden. I heard that one day, after court, the emperor even kept a Grand Secretary behind for a private discussion, picking out every character he liked and debating them one by one.

He truly loved her. He was only one step away from plucking the moon from the sky and giving it to her.

Actually, Zhao Yan once gave me something too.

A ring.

At the time, we had not been married long. I ignored him, and he ignored me.

I had always liked reading miscellaneous books, but my family kept a strict watch over me. I could only sneak a few pages when my parents were out of the house, just to satisfy the craving. After I married Zhao Yan, there were no elders in the residence to restrain me anymore. Then I heard he owned a complete set of Shanshui Zhiyi, and after enduring that itch for several days, I finally couldn’t take it anymore.

Even then, I still didn’t want to ask him for it.

I thought I would wait until he was away and go straight to his study to take it. It wasn’t anything important, after all. As a Crown Prince’s Side Consort, surely I was qualified to borrow it for a couple of days, right?

Looking back now, I was truly arrogant and stupid back then. In the end, I had been spoiled rotten at home.

The Crown Prince’s study was not a place I could enter and leave as I pleased.

And so, late that night, I was dragged before Zhao Yan by the guards.

He had been sitting behind his desk, examining something. When he saw me, he looked rather surprised, as if he had never expected our first proper meeting to happen in such a dramatic fashion. He stood and asked what I had gone to his study for.

Since I had already been tied up and brought there, I had no choice but to speak. Feeling utterly humiliated, I muttered, “Have the guards leave first.”

After Zhao Yan heard the whole story, he was momentarily speechless, then laughed. He walked up to me and untied me as he said, “That set of books isn’t in the study.”

“Huh?”

Zhao Yan shook his head and sighed. “It’s in the storeroom. Tell the steward tomorrow, and have him take you to get it.”

Right. Why would the Crown Prince keep a set of idle books in his study, just waiting for the censors to submit memorials against him?

My ears burned so hot they almost hurt. I lowered my head, murmured my acknowledgment, and was about to leave when Zhao Yan suddenly called out to me and asked, “What do you girls think about all day? When I don’t give it, you say I won’t give it. Why are you unhappy after I do give it?”

“Huh?”

He grew irritated again. “Why am I telling you this?”

Something flashed before my eyes and was tossed over. I caught it and saw that it was the little object he had been playing with all night.

It turned out to be a ring.

“It’s yours,” he said.

I went back and slept on it. The next day, I understood.

There was no “you girls.”

There was only Li Qiyue.

I figured they must have argued, and he had given me something Li Qiyue didn’t want. I was so furious that I threw it straight out the window.

But after drinking a cup of cold tea, I slunk outside and picked it back up.

Platinum set with a sapphire. It really was very pretty, I thought.

It would have been such a shame to lose it.