Chapter 2

On our wedding night.

Xiao Chengxiao lifted my bridal veil and stared at me for a long time.

In the flickering candlelight, a gleam of amusement rose in his eyes.

“Weren’t you bold enough to call me mad that day?”

“Why are you playing mute now?”

I froze.

“I wouldn’t dare, my lord.”

He assumed I was shy and hooked a finger under the tassel beside my temple.

“Quite an act you’re putting on.”

After the wedding, he loved to provoke me.

While I copied sutras beneath the veranda, he had a large, vicious dog brought over and deliberately put it right in front of me.

I went white with fright, but still put away my paper and brush before saying softly,

“If you wish to keep it, my lord, then please do.”

He took me riding outside the city and chose the most difficult mountain paths.

Even when the reins rubbed my palms raw, I said I was fine.

He deliberately scattered my board-game pieces, set teacups on my half-finished calligraphy, and even mocked me in front of everyone for being dull and wooden.

Every time, I lowered my head.

“Of course, my lord.”

At first, he would narrow his eyes and wait for me to flare up.

Later, the expectation in his gaze gradually faded.

A year into our marriage, he took Qin Yurong, a concubine-born daughter of the Marquis of Jingyuan, into his household.

Lady Qin was strikingly beautiful and fierce-tempered.

She dared smash cups and argue with Xiao Chengxiao. When roused, she would even kick his beloved dog out of the courtyard.

When she cursed him, he leaned against the doorway and laughed instead of taking offense.

Then he turned and saw me standing quietly beneath the eaves, and his smile faded.

“You’re a woman too. How do you manage to be so lifeless?”

I pinched my sleeve and said softly,

“It’s my fault that I haven’t pleased you, my lord.”

His face darkened, and he swept away.

Then I caught a chill and spent several days in bed.

My sister came to visit me.

Xiao Chengxiao made a rare appearance in my courtyard. Sitting by the table, he casually told her to pour him some tea.

She was tucking the quilt around me and didn’t even look back.

“Haven’t you got hands of your own?”

Xiao Chengxiao froze.

My sister turned and gave him an impatient look.

“She’s this ill, and all you can think about is sitting here drinking tea?”

“Can’t Prince Su’s household afford maids? Or are your precious hands too delicate to move?”

He sat motionless.

After a long while, he stared at her face and spoke in a strained voice.

“The person wearing the red fox mask at the spring hunt…”

My sister frowned.

“That was me.”

“The mask was Qingyao’s, but I didn’t like the white deer, so I swapped with her just before we left.”

The room went deathly still.

Xiao Chengxiao slowly turned toward me on the bed.

Shock gave way to understanding in his eyes, until only a darkness so bitter it was almost absurd remained.

That night, he dug the red fox mask out of a chest.

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

Feverish and dazed, I forced myself to sit up.

“Tell you what?”

“That you weren’t the one in the cave.”

There was anger in his voice, as though I were the one who had done something wrong.

Yet only then did I learn why he had married me.

I looked at him and asked quietly,

“When you came to ask for my hand, my lord, you only said that you loved me.”

“You never asked whether I had entered a cave that day.”

“How could I have known you wanted to marry a mask?”

Xiao Chengxiao didn’t answer.

After that, he never came to my courtyard again.

I did ask for a divorce.

He looked at me across his desk and said stiffly,

“Prince Su’s household cannot bear that disgrace.”

And so I remained his wife.

When I was ill, I took medicine. When I woke, I waited for nightfall. The days wore on, drop by drop, like water dripping from the eaves.

Until a fire broke out unexpectedly in the prince’s residence.

When thick smoke poured into my room, I didn’t even have the strength to get out of bed.

Before I closed my eyes, I thought I heard someone outside screaming my name in anguish, over and over.

But it no longer mattered.

My thoughts returned to the present.

I pressed down on the red fox mask’s ties and fastened it more tightly.

“It’s true I don’t particularly like red. But when the palace handed out the masks, our names went into a register. There’s a record of who received each one.”

I looked up at my sister.

“If we exchange them privately and someone mistakes one of us for the other, it could cause trouble. Let’s each wear our own.”