Chapter 127

Chapter 127

[The Prince Consort Brought Home Another Woman – 2]

Unlike her maid, who seethed with rage, Princess Linchang was extraordinarily calm.

Had she still been the Princess Linchang of the past, she would likely have burst into tears.

Her husband had been away for several months, only to return with a pregnant woman. Worse still, the woman closely resembled the half sister with whom Linchang had always been at odds. She would have seized a sword and demanded both their lives!

But now…

Why grow angry over two irrelevant people?

It would only damage her own health, grieving those who loved her and delighting those who hated her.

The truth could never become false, and a falsehood could never become true. She had plenty of time to wait.

Thus, after hearing the report, Princess Linchang merely smiled. “Understood.”

She asked nothing further.

Her maid was so frantic that she nearly wept. Her eyes reddened, and she looked ready to charge before that faithless pair and stab them on the spot. “Princess, the Shen Family has gone too far! No Prince Consort has ever been allowed to take a concubine, but even if they were, he could never take the Third Princess! Everyone knows she has a poor relationship with you!”

“Silence!”

Princess Linchang’s expression changed abruptly. Her elegant brows drew together as she rebuked the maid. “Who told you the Prince Consort intends to take my Third Sister as a concubine? He would dare make an imperial princess his concubine? Does he not fear that the lives of all nine branches of his clan would be forfeit? Great Qin has not fallen. When did the Shen Family gain the right to commit such treasonous disrespect?! More importantly, my Third Sister is a married woman. If your words spread, how could she continue living with dignity? She is a princess of the imperial family. How could she possibly commit such a shameless act?!”

The maid fell silent beneath the scolding. She lowered her head, sobbing as she wiped her tears. Seeing this, Princess Linchang softened her tone. “I know you are worried about me, but you still cannot speak recklessly. Neither the Prince Consort nor my Third Sister is a person without propriety, and my Third Sister is already married. How could they possibly behave so disgracefully?”

Then she ordered the attendants, “Send someone to the Prince Consort and ask exactly what has happened.”

With that, she walked toward the main residence.

Princess Linchang’s old nurse, Nurse He, had remained at her side without speaking. Only after they reached the inner chambers and she began helping the Princess change into informal clothes did she say gently, “If Your Highness is angry, tell this old servant about it. Keeping everything buried inside will only harm your health.”

Princess Linchang smiled bitterly. “Nurse, I am truly fine. My heart died the day Shen Lin abandoned me to save Jiangyang. Whatever they do now, I feel nothing.”

She slid the bracelet from her wrist, and her gaze softened. “I only hope Ming’an will temper his disposition and stop opposing Imperial Father at every turn. As for Little Six, I hope she marries into a good family and enjoys a peaceful, harmonious marriage. An eldest sister is like a mother. Imperial Mother is gone, so as their elder sister, I must naturally watch over them.”

Princess Linchang recalled the words her mother had spoken before her death. Her eyes finally grew wet. Turning her face aside, she wiped away her tears and closed her eyes. “How could everything in this world ever proceed as one wishes?”

She was the eldest of all the imperial sons and princesses, and legitimate besides. Naturally, she had always been deeply cherished. Wind and rain alike had come at her command. Yet as the Empress had said, daughters suffered easily in this world. Before marriage, a woman might be a Daughter of the Emperor, a golden branch with leaves of jade. Afterward, she still descended to the mortal world and confronted the ordinary cares of food and household life.

Princess Linchang’s Prince Consort, Shen Lin, came from an eminent family that had known wealth and official rank for generations. The Shen Family had guarded the northern frontier for generations and held military power, making them a force no one could underestimate. Better still, Shen Lin himself was a handsome man renowned throughout the capital, heroic and vigorous, as imposing as a lofty mountain above a deep pool.

Princess Linchang first met Shen Lin when she was awakening to love, and her heart stirred. She was strong-willed and passionate, daring to love and hate with equal intensity. Upon hearing that Shen Lin had not yet become engaged, she went to her father and asked him to bestow the marriage. Her first reason was to fulfill the romantic dreams of her youth. Her second was to secure a powerful marital alliance for the Eldest Imperial Son.

The Emperor had always doted upon his eldest daughter and also wished to prepare the path for the Eldest Imperial Son. After investigating Shen Lin and sounding out the Shen Family, he found them willing. He soon issued an imperial decree granting the marriage. The following spring, a magnificent red bridal procession stretched for miles as he married off his eldest daughter in splendor.

Married life, however, proved far less blissful than Princess Linchang had imagined.

Her husband was quiet and emotionally distant. Even when the couple were alone, he seldom whispered sweet words to her. His official duties were demanding as well, so they spent far more time apart than together.

At the time, Princess Linchang thought little of it. She assumed this was simply his nature. The proud Eldest Princess, who had held her head high for more than a decade, humbled herself enough to enter the kitchen and cook for him. Yet rather than tenderness and consideration from her husband, she received a devastating blow from both him and her half sister, Princess Jiangyang.

At the time, Shen Lin held an official post in the provinces, and Princess Linchang accompanied him. Princess Jiangyang’s maternal uncle fell ill, so she traveled to visit him. When her route passed through the area where Linchang and her husband resided, she stopped for a brief stay, only to be abducted by bandits.

The kidnappers pressed blades to the sisters’ throats. With a vicious grin, their leader asked Shen Lin, “You can save only one of them. Which one do you choose?”

Princess Jiangyang lowered her head and wept, lovely as pear blossoms in the rain. Before Princess Linchang had even recovered from her shock and terror, she heard Shen Lin answer, “I choose Jiangyang!”

He chose Jiangyang…

How could he choose Jiangyang?!

One was the wife he had formally married, the woman who had shared his bed for more than two years. The other was his wife’s half sister, whom he had only met a handful of times. Yet at the boundary between life and death, he chose Jiangyang?!

The pain of being abandoned by her husband and the icy realization that two years of marriage meant nothing to him struck within a few short moments. For the first time in Princess Linchang’s life, she understood despair. She understood what it meant to die and come back to life.

The bandits roared with laughter. They shoved Princess Jiangyang back, hauled Princess Linchang onto a horse, and fled.

She twisted around for one last look and saw her half sister throw herself into her husband’s arms, sobbing uncontrollably. Shen Lin’s rarely changing expression had transformed. His face was anxious, his gaze filled with tenderness.

At last, Princess Linchang’s tears fell.
The attendants quickly caught Princess Jiangyang. Shen Lin finally recovered from his shock and turned an anguished, urgent gaze toward his wife. He mounted a horse and gave chase. Princess Linchang glimpsed him from the corner of her eye but felt nothing at all.

Her heart was already dead. How could she possibly feel anything?

By the time Princess Jiangyang threw herself into Shen Lin’s arms and sobbed uncontrollably, the bandits had already carried Princess Linchang away at a gallop. In the end, the man who rescued her was not Shen Lin, but Leng Chong, the covert guard Imperial Father had bestowed upon her.

Princess Linchang fell from the horse and broke her leg, yet she showed no reaction, as though the broken limb belonged to someone else.

When she came back to herself, the shawl around her arms had been torn into strips and neatly bound around the fractured bone. Leng Chong knelt on the ground, pleading guilty for arriving late to rescue her and for offending the Princess’s person.

“What fault is yours?”

Princess Linchang seemed drowned in despair. She said woodenly, “Jiangyang was the one who insisted we come here. The Prince Consort was the one who abandoned me. You saved my life. I cannot thank you enough, so how could I possibly punish you?”

Leng Chong was mute and could not speak. He merely looked at her with his dark eyes.

His pupils were black as night, yet although he was a living weapon, his eyes held the gentle warmth of a dove.

Princess Linchang endured for a long time, but ultimately failed to restrain herself. Her quiet sobs gradually swelled into wailing cries.

By the time Shen Lin arrived with his men, Princess Linchang had regained her composure. With a dark expression, she instructed the attendants who had rushed over to prepare a carriage and return her to the residence. She did not say a single word to Shen Lin.

Afterward, Shen Lin came to explain himself. Princess Jiangyang was their guest and they were her hosts, he said. At that moment, he could hardly abandon Jiangyang and choose his wife. Besides, he had already arranged everything along the path ahead. Other guards were positioned to intercept and pursue the bandits, and covert guards were present as well. Nothing could possibly have happened to her.

Supported by a maid, Princess Jiangyang went to visit her elder sister. She wept as she begged Linchang not to misunderstand. She was already a married woman and had no improper connection to her brother-in-law. Shen Lin valued her only because he valued his wife and therefore extended the same regard to his wife’s younger sister.

Shen Lin frowned and glanced at her but ultimately said nothing.

Night had fallen, and the lamplight was dim. Princess Linchang reclined halfway upon a couch, her broken leg aching with a cold, penetrating pain. Her gaze swept over Shen Lin’s face, then shifted to Princess Jiangyang. At last, she claimed to be tired, closed her eyes, and ordered someone to escort them out.

Princess Jiangyang seemed to want to say more, but after glancing at Shen Lin’s expression, she did not dare speak.

Shen Lin’s expression softened instead. He sat beside the bed and asked whether his wife was still in pain, whether she was hungry, and whether she wished to eat something.

Princess Linchang had never imagined that one day she would find his voice so repulsive and nauseating.

Shen Lin continued speaking, expressing his concern and consideration in a tender voice he had almost never used with her before. Princess Linchang’s stomach churned as she listened. Rage and hatred surged together. She raised her hand and slapped him across the face. “I said I was tired. Does the Prince Consort not understand those words?!”

A princess possessed exalted status, but Shen Lin was still the young heir of one of the greatest noble houses. Everyone’s expression changed when she struck him.

Princess Jiangyang approached with a pitiful whimper. “Elder Sister, this isn’t Brother-in-Law’s fault. If you are angry, then direct it at me…”

Before she could finish, Shen Lin’s cold stare forced the rest of the sentence back down her throat.

Shen Lin had always been proud and aloof. Being slapped before everyone humiliated him, but perhaps because he knew he was in the wrong, he did not lose his temper. He merely told Princess Linchang to rest well before rising and leaving.

As the legitimate Grand Princess, Linchang had always been proud. How could she willingly swallow such humiliation?

She also found the entire incident suspicious and secretly ordered an investigation.

The results revealed far more than she expected. Shen Lin and Princess Jiangyang had known each other long before, and the bandits they encountered that day had countless hidden ties to Jiangyang’s wet nurse.

Princess Linchang thought back to how Princess Jiangyang had insisted upon visiting this place and used their trip to the hot springs as an excuse to keep the covert guards at a distance. How could she fail to understand?

After suffering such a frightening ordeal, Princess Jiangyang should reasonably have remained there to recover for several days. Yet for some unknown reason, she packed her belongings that very night. The next morning, she sent someone to bid Princess Linchang farewell and departed.

Princess Linchang only sneered when she heard the news and offered no comment. When Shen Lin mentioned the matter, she did not so much as twitch an eyebrow.

A month passed. Then a messenger arrived with news. After visiting her maternal uncle, Princess Jiangyang had set out for the capital. The mountain roads were rugged, and days of heavy rain had turned them muddy and treacherous. Her carriage accidentally overturned and plunged into a ravine. Princess Jiangyang survived, but only barely. More importantly, she had been nearly three months pregnant and miscarried in the fall.

When the news arrived, Shen Lin was dining with Princess Linchang. His expression changed instantly. He slammed his chopsticks onto the table and demanded with a livid face, “Was this your doing?!”

Princess Linchang glanced at him and replied coolly, “The Prince Consort should mind his words. Jiangyang is my younger sister, my own flesh and blood. No sisters could be more harmonious than we are. How could I possibly harm her? Even an animal would not injure its own sibling. How could I be so devoid of conscience as to deal such a vicious blow to my own sister?”

Shen Lin’s face was ugly. He stared at her for a long time, then gave a harsh sneer, rose, and left.

“Let him go!”

Princess Linchang declared fiercely, “The Shen Family may have enjoyed wealth and official rank for generations, but so what?! They must still serve Great Qin and perform three kneelings and nine prostrations before my Imperial Father! Who does he think he is?”

Shen Lin had not gone far. His body stiffened when he heard her words. Then he quickened his pace and swept away with a furious flick of his sleeves.
Nurse He understood her pain and fury. How could she not ache for the child she had raised at her own breast?

“If there truly is no other way, then make a clean break. Your Highness is still young. Why trap yourself here and waste your life?”

“There can be no clean break.”

Princess Linchang smiled bitterly and shook her head. “With Ming’an’s temperament, I truly cannot stop worrying about him. Having the Shen Family behind him will at least make the other imperial sons more wary. As for the Shen Family, their control of military power already makes it easy for Imperial Father to distrust them. Their prestige surpasses that of ordinary nobles, but for precisely that reason, they must marry into the imperial family and maintain a humble posture toward the throne. Otherwise, how could they transfer their power peacefully from one generation to the next? Without me, Imperial Father’s eldest daughter, mediating on their behalf, the destruction of their entire house would be no laughing matter!”

She saw the situation perfectly clearly. “I need the Shen Family to strengthen Ming’an’s position, and the Shen Family needs me to manage its relationship with the imperial family. We each take what we need. Just wait and see, Nurse. No matter what happens in private, Shen Lin will never openly break with me. If not for himself, then for the Shen Family.”

Later events unfolded exactly as Princess Linchang predicted.

Princess Jiangyang had been willing to strike at her, so Linchang naturally showed no mercy in return. Allowing Jiangyang to retain her life was already the height of compassion. Linchang certainly did not believe her half sister had hired bandits to abduct her for a friendly game of house.

The fall confined Princess Jiangyang to bed for nearly half a year. The physician told her that she had always been frail, and this injury had further damaged her vitality. Unless she recovered properly, she might never conceive again, and her life would be shortened.

By the time those words reached Princess Linchang, her leg had healed completely. She could run, jump, ride, and hunt as well as ever. When she heard that Princess Jiangyang was still lying half dead in bed, she remarked with great sympathy, “Serves her right.”

That fall also drove the marriage between Princess Linchang and Shen Lin to its absolute freezing point. It would never return to what it had been.

Princess Linchang did not care.

As for what Shen Lin thought…

She did not care about that either.

This time, Shen Lin had left the capital on official business and returned with a pregnant woman who resembled Princess Jiangyang. Princess Linchang truly was not angry in the slightest.

What was there to be angry about?

If the woman truly was Shen Lin’s concubine-or more accurately, his secret mistress-then as mistress of the household and a princess of the imperial dynasty, Linchang could immediately order her dragged out and beaten to death. Shen Lin would suffer as well, and the Shen Family would not dare voice a single complaint!

Great Qin had never permitted a Prince Consort to take a concubine. Why should Shen Lin be the exception?

Did he rely upon the Shen Family’s power and hold the imperial family in contempt?

If the pregnant woman truly was Princess Jiangyang and the child in her belly belonged to Shen Lin, that would be even better.

Princess Linchang was about to enter the most indisputably righteous moment of her life.

She could take a whip to that faithless pair. She could swing a saber at them. She could even summon Princess Jiangyang’s Prince Consort and in-laws to take their turns, then nail the adulterers to a pillar of shame from which they could never escape!

And she had to act quickly!

As the eldest daughter, Princess Linchang had spent more time at her father’s knee than any of his other children. She understood the Reigning Emperor’s temperament far too well.

He was willing to defend his children and protect even daughters who had already married, but he possessed an innate rigidity and placed immense importance on law and proper order.

Jiangyang was finished!

Unless Jiangyang immediately developed a strain of rice that yielded one hundred thousand jin per mu, or rolled up her sleeves and rebuilt the Great Wall overnight, there was absolutely no room for this affair to turn around!

Princess Linchang was in an excellent mood. She was not worried at all!

The maid she had sent to make inquiries soon returned, and she did not come alone.

Travel dust covered Shen Lin, and his expression was exhausted. The first thing he said upon entering was, “Mu Pei is dead.”

Mu Pei was Princess Jiangyang’s Prince Consort.

Princess Linchang held a round fan and waved it idly. “Is that so?”

Shen Lin seemed not to have expected such an indifferent response. He pressed his lips together before saying, “The Mu Family has descended into chaos, and no one is there to take charge. The Third Princess has always been frail, and now she is pregnant, so I made the decision to bring her back with me…”

Princess Linchang’s brows had drawn together before he was halfway finished. By the end, she laughed in anger. “Prince Consort, what does chaos in the Mu Family have to do with you? Why did you rush over so eagerly to take Mu Pei’s wife away and place her under your protection? Imperial princesses may be exalted, but we still observe the most basic rites. If you died one day, I would have to mourn you. Even if only for twenty-seven days, I would at least fulfill my duty, wouldn’t I?”

She stopped fanning herself and tossed the fan aside. “Mu Pei’s bones are not even cold, yet his wife’s brother-in-law has already carried her away in the name of protection. Something about that seems wrong to me. Am I simply too old-fashioned and conservative, or are you and Jiangyang a little too open and passionate?”

Shen Lin closed his eyes in pain. Torn by conflict, he said, “Linchang, Jiangyang is only a pitiful woman. Why must you be so aggressive? She is your younger sister, after all!”

“I am being aggressive?!”

“Wait.” Her elegant brows rose. In disbelief, she asked, “Prince Consort, don’t tell me the child in her belly truly belongs to you?”

Shen Lin drew a deep breath and urged, “Linchang, stop asking. Sometimes ignorance is a blessing. It would be better for everyone.”

Princess Linchang refused to yield a single step. “Is the child truly yours?”

Shen Lin remained silent, plainly admitting it.

Princess Linchang stared at him. Suddenly, she gave a cold laugh, rose, and ordered those around her, “Prepare a carriage. I am entering the palace!”

Frost covered her face. “When people show me an inch of respect, I return it tenfold. No matter how cold our marriage has become over the past two years, I never went out to find another man and make a cuckold of you. Now you have slept with my own sister and produced a child, yet you tell me ignorance is a blessing and it would be better for everyone? Do I have ‘easy mark’ written across my face, inviting the two of you to trample me as you please?!”
When Shen Lin saw that she intended to enter the palace, he hurriedly rose and reached for her sleeve. Irritation colored his face. “You are always like this! You do whatever pleases you and never consider anyone else!”

He sighed, half helpless and half pleading. “Linchang, I am begging you. Stop asking questions, all right?”

Princess Linchang sneered, flung him away with a sweep of her sleeve, and turned to leave.

“Huaiwan!”

Shen Lin called her personal name through gritted teeth, a hidden tremor in his voice. “If you enter the palace, the bond between us as husband and wife will end today!”

Princess Linchang was astonished.

Then she walked even faster.

Shen Lin remained alone, frozen in place. He stared blankly ahead, lost and frightened, undisguised pain filling his eyes.

An unknown amount of time passed before Princess Jiangyang came looking for him with the support of attendants. She found Shen Lin slumped on the floor, his face bleak and his eyes empty, as though he had lost something of immense importance.

Her heart skipped. Her hatred deepened, but her eyes grew wet at precisely the right moment. She walked forward and asked in a choked voice, “Brother Lin, did you quarrel with Eldest Sister? This is all my fault. Why didn’t you tell her the truth?”

Shen Lin’s lips were bloodless. After a long while, he whispered, “This matter concerns your reputation. I promised I would not reveal it. How could I tell her?”

Princess Jiangyang’s eyes brimmed with tears. She gazed at him in gratitude as though he were her entire world. “Brother Lin, why are you so good to me?!”

Shen Lin did not look at her. His voice was weak and distant. “Mu Pei is dead. If only to preserve his posthumous reputation, the Mu Family will never expose that matter. I will have my men find a residence elsewhere to settle you. As for the future…”

Princess Jiangyang wept. “Brother Lin, I only want to remain at your side!”

Shen Lin frowned. Before he could voice his refusal, Princess Jiangyang pleaded, “I did wrong in the past, but I have already been punished. Brother Lin, please let me stay. I will never intrude upon you or Eldest Sister…”

Shen Lin looked at the sobbing Princess Jiangyang, and an elderly, benevolent face surfaced indistinctly in his mind. He struggled for several moments. Then he remembered how every trace of blood had drained from his wife’s face when the bandits forced him to choose between the two women, and his resolve hardened. “No.”

Princess Jiangyang wept so violently that she could barely breathe. “Eldest Sister has already gone to the palace, and Imperial Father has always doted on her. What am I worth? If Imperial Father becomes angry, he may even strip me of my title. If you abandon me too, Brother Lin, where can I go? I might as well die!”

Shen Lin’s expression changed. “Don’t speak such nonsense!”

…

Meanwhile, Princess Linchang entered the palace by carriage. The moment she stepped down, tears began to fall.

It was only crying. Who did not know how to do that?!

She was the legitimate Grand Princess and had always been favored. When the eunuch responsible for announcements saw her face streaked with tears, he was both shocked and alarmed. Not daring to delay, he hurried inside to report. He soon trotted back and respectfully invited her to enter.

Ying Zheng had only just arranged the marriage between the Sixth Princess and Jiang Yingchen and was beginning to relax. He had spent some time discussing state affairs with several court officials when word arrived that Princess Linchang had returned. No one knew what had happened, but she was crying as though her heart would break.

Both shocked and worried, Ying Zheng ordered that she be admitted at once. Before long, Princess Linchang approached with tears streaming down her face, knelt, and begged her father to grant her justice.

“The Prince Consort has never felt much affection for this daughter and has repeatedly treated me coldly since our marriage…”

“When bandits seized this daughter and Jiangyang, he abandoned me and chose Jiangyang without a moment’s thought…”

“Now Jiangyang’s husband has died, but the Prince Consort brought her back to our residence, and she is carrying his child…”

When Ying Zheng heard that Shen Lin had abandoned his wife and chosen his sister-in-law when forced to choose between them, his brows twitched violently. The emperors within the System’s space collectively broke down. Then came the classic plot of a Prince Consort bringing home a pregnant woman-who was also the princess’s younger sister. They immediately understood which section of the story this was.

Ying Zheng saw Princess Linchang through the lens of his own eldest daughter from his previous life. Earlier, when he discussed the marriage between the Sixth Princess and Jiang Yingchen with her, he had found this daughter righteous, sensible, and considerate, which increased his affection for her.

Now she wept with such grievance after encountering a genuine lunatic. Ying Zheng felt tremendous pity. “Good child, you have suffered. Rise quickly.”

He ordered the attendants to serve the Princess tea.

Princess Linchang’s heart had long since died toward the Prince Consort. Now that the Prince of Chu had kicked the bucket, her brother’s position as heir had grown even more secure. Why should she continue swallowing such humiliation?

She promptly explained the matter in full. “It is not that this daughter is domineering or incapable of tolerating another woman. This affair is simply too outrageous and violates every principle of human relations.”

Ying Zheng agreed deeply. “Indeed.”

Imitating Princess Jiangyang, Princess Linchang sniffled pitifully. “Imperial Father, please grant this daughter justice!”

“What use is there in keeping such disgraceful creatures alive?”

Ying Zheng’s expression hardened. “Bestow death upon them both.”

Princess Linchang continued sniffling. “At the very least, they should each receive a beating… Wait, what?!!!”