Chapter 2
“Did it never occur to you to wonder how a blind man could tell you when to turn left or right—and warn you that you were about to hit a door?”
“Blind people have keen instincts!” I blinked at him. “Mother told me about a man who lost his legs. His willpower was so strong that he trained his instincts until he could sense qi, leap over rooftops, and become a legendary martial arts master. You may be blind, but with enough training, you could make your eyes—see things from afar!”
The Crown Prince: …Your mother might want to read fewer storybooks.
His expression had soured, but I was bursting with curiosity. I asked with perfect sincerity, “Why are you pretending to be blind?”
He ignored me.
Stumbling over my words, I tried again. “You saw those two just now, um, doing…that. Aren’t you going to have their heads?”
“I am blind. I saw nothing.”
“You just said you weren’t blind!”
“Why didn’t you call for people to catch them in the act?”
“If even you didn’t dare say anything, wouldn’t I be asking to die if I did?”
“You become remarkably clearheaded when it concerns your own neck.”
That shut me up. “B-but you’re the Crown Prince…”
“So what if I am? Even a mute wife of a princely heir dares address me as ‘you’ over and over. Do you think I can simply kill whomever I please?”
“Y-Your Highness, Your Highness, Your Highness. Better? But that does make sense. Why did Mother make me mute? Because once, thieves broke into our house. I would have been fine if I’d pretended to be asleep, but I just had to tell one of them he was ugly and poor. He nearly chopped me to pieces— Wait. Is there someone around you who wants to…chop off Your Highness’s head too?”
The Crown Prince gave me an indescribable look. After a long pause, he said, “You do tell a decent story. And there isn’t much scheming in that head of yours.”
But the amusement soon faded into melancholy. “What I lack is someone who can speak.”
“What a coincidence. That’s me. Take me with you.”
The Crown Prince kept staring.
I hesitated. “You don’t want to? Is it inconvenient because someone wants your head? Then you’re a surprisingly decent man.”
I vaguely remembered overhearing Father and Mother say that before the Crown Prince lost his sight, His Majesty had valued him greatly. After he went blind, however, he was confined to his residence day after day. If he wanted to help His Majesty handle state affairs, he needed someone to read the memorials aloud.
But one reader would not do. Since the Crown Prince could not see, deceiving him would be far too easy. He needed several readers. Two would not do either, because two people could collude. Three would be safer—but even three might conspire together.
In the end, one man would handle the memorials while an entire crowd read them aloud.
What emperor could tolerate that? A crowd of people would learn every state secret before he had even read it himself.
If the Crown Prince’s eyes did not recover, his deposition was only a matter of time. The dignified thing would be to volunteer to step down.
But the Crown Prince was clearly not a dignified man. He sat there, brazenly refusing to mention abdication, determined to occupy the position without doing the work.
If His Majesty did not still care for the Empress, the Crown Prince would probably have lost his seat already. Even so, his influence was plainly dwindling by the day.
Openly falling out with He Yansheng would be unwise.
What a man—grand title, wretched life…
How did the two of us end up so miserable?
“Our lives are both so bitter. Please have mercy. Take me with you and save my life…”
When I finished, we both fell silent again.
On the night his younger cousin married, the groom slept with his elder cousin’s wife, so the elder cousin took the bride away.
Scandalous. Absolutely scandalous.
My husband broke the silence. As we sat there saying nothing, He Yansheng’s voice came from the doorway.
“Yayue, there you are.”