Chapter 28

Chapter 28

[Prince Consort, the Princess Has Been Beaten to Death – 27]

Outside, Court Lady Du and the others froze. “Princess?”

Princess Qinghe threw on an outer robe and climbed from bed. She repeated more forcefully, “Muster our people, go to the Lü Family, and seize Lü Xiuzhen for me! Now!”

A maid acknowledged the order and left. Court Lady Du stepped forward and carefully examined Princess Qinghe’s face. “Is the princess well?”

She took out a handkerchief and wiped the sweat from her forehead. “Did you suffer a nightmare? You have perspired so heavily in the middle of the night.”

“It was only a nightmare. Now that I am awake, it is over.”

Princess Qinghe exhaled. Then she suddenly remembered something and ordered, “Before I married, I believe Consort Mother sent all my old clothing and accessories here as well?”

Court Lady Du did not understand why she had abruptly raised the subject. She hesitantly nodded. “Yes. Everything was entered in the register and stored in the warehouse…”

Princess Qinghe put on her shoes and rose. “Please visit the warehouse and bring me every jade pendant I wore in the past.”

Court Lady Du asked in surprise, “Every one?”

Princess Qinghe nodded with certainty. “Every one.”

…

Princess Qinghe and Princess Zhaoyang had arrived in tremendous force and departed with an equally grand procession. Madam Lü’s face was injured, and she was ashamed to be seen. But she dared not neglect courtesy and forced herself to escort them to the gate. The instant their carriages vanished, she hurriedly sent someone to her husband’s office with a message. She also dispatched servants to wait outside the palace gates and bring her son home the moment he emerged.

Her attendants understood the gravity of the situation and dared not delay. They went to the Patriarch of the Lü Family’s office and reported that a catastrophe had occurred at home. Madam Lü could not support matters alone and begged him to return and take command.

Hearing this, the Patriarch of the Lü Family was seized by foreboding. He rode home and found Madam Lü sitting motionless in a chair in the inner room. Her expression was vacant and her eyes terrified. Both cheeks were swollen high, and savage threads of blood showed through the skin of her carefully maintained face, making her appear frightening.

His heart lurched. He ordered the servants out, shut the door, and asked urgently, “Madam? Madam! What happened? What happened to your face?”

Madam Lü returned to herself and turned toward him. Panic and guilt filled her gaze. Her lips moved several times, and tears began to fall. “Xiuzhen and I… we have caused a great catastrophe…”

The affair was too grave to conceal. She recounted everything from beginning to end. Then, with uncharacteristic timidity, she said uneasily, “But I truly never expected it would end this way.”

When she mentioned Gao Yanyan, Madam Lü seemed to recover a shred of confidence. She complained indignantly, “She deceived Xiuzhen and deceived me! If she had not claimed to be Xiuzhen’s savior, why would I have kept her? If that wretched woman had not suddenly appeared, the princess and Xiuzhen would never have fallen out like this! The princess saved Xiuzhen’s life, and fate also joined them as husband and wife. Once they explained everything, they would have become a pair of immortal lovers. How could matters have reached this point?”

The Patriarch of the Lü Family’s face turned pale. He clutched his chest and nearly collapsed. Madam Lü tried to continue, but her husband’s expression abruptly hardened. “Silence!” he snapped.

Madam Lü flinched in fright. She looked at him aggrievedly and whispered, “But I did not say anything wrong.”

The Patriarch of the Lü Family said bitterly, “Even now, you do not repent. Your mouth remains full of nonsense! How hateful that I was so foolish as to marry you and father an equally foolish son!”

His body shook. Supporting himself on the back of a chair, he slowly sat down, fury rolling within him. “Gao Yanyan claimed she was Xiuzhen’s savior. The princess said the same. Since there was doubt, did Xiuzhen not know to investigate privately and determine the truth? Why did he immediately believe Gao Yanyan? Very well. Let us suppose Gao Yanyan had a glib tongue and managed to deceive mother and son. Why did neither of you tell me afterward? Instead, you concealed her in your courtyard and allowed her to become Xiuzhen’s concubine. Is that any way to treat a savior?!”

“Why are you being so fierce?” Madam Lü sobbed, deeply aggrieved. “She was the descendant of a convicted official and a fugitive government slave!”

“Fool! Were you born without a brain?!”

The Patriarch of the Lü Family was normally gentle, but now even he flew into a rage. “The Gao Family was condemned years ago, and those involved in the case were executed long since. With the guilty dead, the debt was settled. However great His Majesty’s anger, it should have dissipated by now. Lady Gao was merely a woman of the inner household, not someone guilty of a heinous crime. Even if her name remained on the criminal register, she had never received a death sentence. Had you brought her before me and explained everything, do you imagine I would not have found a path for her? If she truly saved Xiuzhen’s life, would I be so stonehearted that I refused to repay her?”

Madam Lü stared blankly, at a loss for words. The Patriarch of the Lü Family grew still angrier. Slapping the table, he spoke between coughs. “Once Xiuzhen married the princess, the Lü Family became kin by marriage with the imperial family. You could have taken Gao Yanyan into the palace, knelt before the Empress, and explained that an old benefactor had fallen onto the criminal register and that the Lü Family could not watch her die. Lady Gao was, after all, the savior of the imperial family’s son-in-law and had committed no grave offense herself. If not for the monk, then for the Buddha: for the sake of the princess and Consort Xian, Her Majesty would surely have shown mercy beyond the law and pardoned her!”

Madam Lü turned his words over in her mind and realized they were entirely reasonable. Thinking again of everything she had done, she abruptly grew terrified. “I-I never thought that far at the time…”

Humiliated and ashamed, she regretted her actions too late. After struggling with remorse for some time, anger rose again. “What is the point of saying all this? Does it make you appear especially wise? You are only wise after the event! Think first about how we are to end this affair!”

The Patriarch of the Lü Family released a miserable cry and covered his face with one sleeve. He remained silent for a long time. When he finally lowered his arm, an old man’s tears streamed down his face, and despair filled his eyes. “So fate decreed. So fate decreed!”
Seeing him this way, Madam Lü was not without pain. She wiped her tears with a handkerchief and choked out, “Hurry and think of something! The princess said Xiuzhen must report to the Princess Manor tomorrow. I watched her order Lady Gao beaten to death today. I am truly terrified!”

“Had you known today would come, why behave that way at the beginning? Enough. I am hardly blameless myself. What right have I to criticize you?”

The Patriarch of the Lü Family regarded her for a long while, his gaze full of sorrow. “I always knew you could not be a competent mistress of a great household, so I never made matters difficult for you. I feared you did not understand household affairs, so I had matrons help you manage them. I feared you would fight endlessly with concubines, so I took none. Yet who could have imagined… So fate decreed!”

He said no more and merely sat in his chair, weeping silently.

Madam Lü’s heart twisted like a knife. She too vaguely sensed that the affair would be nearly impossible to resolve. In panic, she asked, “Is-is there truly no way?”

“Barely a month after the wedding, Xiuzhen took a concubine from the criminal register. Never mind marrying a princess-what ordinary family would behave so? Worse, he treated the princess with such contempt beforehand, while you, his mother, not only failed to stop him but encouraged him!”

The Patriarch of the Lü Family seemed to age more than a decade in an instant. Bracing his hands against the table, he slowly rose and said in despair, “I am old and can no longer manage so much. Do as you please. Before, you kept everything so tightly concealed that you refused to tell me a single word. Why ask me now? At worst, we will all set out together and reunite in the underworld. I have lived to this age. It is enough.”

Madam Lü was frightened and desperately uneasy. She watched her husband stagger out and asked in a trembling voice, “How can matters have reached such a point?”

Yet fear remained. Her hands shaking, she raised the cold tea on the table and drank. Then she repeatedly urged the servants to wait outside the palace gates and make certain they brought her son home at once.

…

Lü Xiuzhen did not leave the palace until evening. He had just reached the palace gates with his colleagues when the servants Madam Lü arranged hurried forward. They said a great disaster had occurred at home and begged him to return immediately.

Since his parents were involved, Lü Xiuzhen dared not delay. He mounted a horse and rushed home. He stared in shock at Madam Lü’s swollen face, and after that first burst of alarm and fury, several thunderbolts struck him in succession.

His affair with Yanyan had been exposed.

Princess Qinghe and Princess Zhaoyang had stormed the Lü Family home together that day.

Yanyan was dead.

Most important of all, she was not his savior. When she encountered him years ago, she had deliberately invented the story to preserve her own life!

His true savior was none other than Princess Qinghe, the wife he had always treated coldly and with whom he now shared mutual loathing!

Lü Xiuzhen felt struck by lightning. His expression went blank. Only after a long, stunned silence did he slowly return to himself.

“…Mother, is what you say really true?”

His voice was rough, his disbelief complete. “You are not deliberately deceiving me in the hope that the affair can somehow be mended?”

Madam Lü’s face was a frightening mixture of red and purple. Tears covered it. After speaking with her husband, the unease and terror deep within her had nearly crushed her.

“It is true. Gao Yanyan admitted it herself. I was not the only person who heard. Everyone in the courtyard did.”

Her smile was bitter and panicked. “What purpose could deceiving you serve now?”

Lü Xiuzhen was utterly stupefied.

How could this be?!

The kind and innocent little girl from years ago, bright as a lark, had actually been Princess Qinghe?

And the hideous, vicious-hearted girl had been Gao Yanyan?

Heavens, what had he done?!

Princess Qinghe… no!

Jingrou had told him the truth, but Gao Yanyan’s honeyed lies had blinded him. He had actually believed she was deceiving him!

He had treated the woman who harmed him as his savior and cherished her in every possible way, while coldly neglecting his wife-his true savior!

After a long daze, Lü Xiuzhen abruptly returned to himself. Remorse and regret rose like a tide, submerging and suffocating him until he could scarcely breathe.

Every act he had committed against his wife after their marriage, every cold word he had spoken, became an iron hammer striking mercilessly against his heart.

How could he have done such things?

How could he have treated Jingrou that way?

How heartbroken must she have been?

He had always wanted to find her. He had always meant to cherish and care for her for the rest of their lives. Yet in the end, the person who hurt her most was none other than himself!

Lü Xiuzhen, Lü Xiuzhen-how could you have been so muddleheaded, so blind in both eye and heart?

His regret was overwhelming. Remembering all he had done, he wished he could slap himself twice. Unable to restrain himself, he nearly rose that instant to rush to the Princess Manor, apologize to Jingrou, and beg her forgiveness.

Madam Lü caught him. “Why are you rushing? The princess ordered you to go tomorrow.”

Lü Xiuzhen could only sit again, his face full of remorse. “How could I…”

Then he added bitterly, “That wretch Gao Yanyan! Had her honeyed words not deceived me, the princess and I would have lived as a pair of immortal lovers. How could we have reached this point?!”

Madam Lü replied, “She is dead. Why speak of her now?”

“She deserved to die!” Lü Xiuzhen ground his teeth. “Jingrou was still far too softhearted. In her place, I would have carved that wretch apart with ten thousand cuts before my hatred was satisfied!”

He remembered that before he and Jingrou married, she had tenderly made him a robe. Time had been so short, yet every stitch was meticulous. Who knew how many nights she had remained awake to complete it? How deep must her affection have been?

And what had he done? Gao Yanyan deceived him, and he dismissed all of it.

At Gao Yanyan’s urging, he had even cut apart the robe Jingrou sewed with her own hands in a fit of rage.

Gao Yanyan. That wretch again!
Lü Xiuzhen ground his teeth with hatred. Had time not been pressing, he would have taken a shovel and dug up Gao Yanyan’s grave.

Madam Lü said, “This is not the time to dwell on the past. We must consider the future. Matters have reached this point. What do you think we should do?”

Lü Xiuzhen sighed. His expression filled with tenderness and regret. “Jingrou must be furious with me now. I understand. Anyone who encountered such a thing would be angry.”

He said with profound feeling, “I behaved badly before. I wronged Jingrou. I am willing to spend the rest of my life making amends, cherishing her and caring for her…”

Lü Xiuzhen was handsome to begin with. Beneath the candlelight, he appeared still more gentle and refined, his clear face glowing like fine Hetian jade.

The sight restored a measure of Madam Lü’s confidence. “Think carefully about what you will say. When you see the princess tomorrow, humble yourself and apologize sincerely. Before the wedding, she was very fond of you. Surely her feelings cannot have faded so quickly…”

The more she spoke, the more plausible the idea seemed. “Gao Yanyan is already dead, and the princess has beaten me. Once you voluntarily present yourself and apologize, at worst she will strike you a few times and make you perform an obeisance. However furious the princess may be, her anger should be spent by then.”

Remembering Princess Qinghe’s gentle and quiet beauty when they first married, Lü Xiuzhen’s heart softened. “Jingrou has always been gentle, virtuous, and kind.”

Mother and son were still dreaming when someone came from outside to report that the Princess Manor had sent for the Prince Consort and required his immediate presence.

Lü Xiuzhen had long had ten thousand things to say to Princess Qinghe. Only her instruction to wait until tomorrow had kept him from going and disturbing her. Now that she had summoned him, he could no longer restrain himself. He hurriedly bade his mother farewell and departed for the Princess Manor.

Princess Qinghe’s nightmare had shown her a woman with the same name and a similar face dying a terrible death. Waves of fury surged through her heart like flames and refused to subside.

She even possessed a hazy intuition that it had not been a dream at all, but another self who had died tragically in another world.

Princess Qinghe rose, dressed, and went to the front hall. Court Lady Du reported from outside. A moment later, the hanging curtain lifted and several servants carried a number of sandalwood chests beneath the corridor. They reported, “These contain all the jade pendants and ornaments the princess wore before marriage.”

Princess Qinghe nodded. Then someone else reported that the Patriarch of the Lü Family had sent a letter and hoped she would read it.

Had the sender been Madam Lü or Lü Xiuzhen, Princess Qinghe would have thrown it into the brazier without a glance. But the Patriarch of the Lü Family…

She hesitated briefly before saying, “Present it.”

The letter had been written in haste and was not long. Every line expressed contrition. He accused himself only of failing to observe and of committing disrespect, without offering a single plea for mercy.

“Every parent’s heart is to be pitied.” Princess Qinghe shook her head and sighed. “Had Lü Xiuzhen learned even half of Lord Lü’s bearing and breadth of mind, matters would never have reached this point.”

She said no more. After ordering the letter put away, she sat in the hall drinking tea and looked up at the waning moon in the sky.

Dense black clouds gathered around it. Rain would probably begin soon.

It was early spring, and the night still carried a penetrating chill. Court Lady Du ordered a brazier brought over and incense lit. Gentle warmth mingled with a refreshing fragrance, and even the limbs and skin seemed to relax.

About half an hour later, someone reported that the Prince Consort had arrived and waited outside for the princess’s summons.

Princess Qinghe sneered inwardly. She casually straightened the fox fur over her shoulders, sat upright, and said, “Summon him.”

The greater Lü Xiuzhen’s disgust and impatience toward Princess Qinghe had once been, the deeper his guilt and regret now ran. He followed the corridor into the inner courtyard. The instant he saw Princess Qinghe seated in a chair with fox fur draped over her, his eyes lit. Tenderness filled his heart. He hurried forward several steps and called emotionally, “Jingrou!”

Princess Qinghe had not expected him to begin calling her by name. Gooseflesh rose across her body. She frowned at him in disgust. “Lü Xiuzhen, have you taken the wrong medicine? What right have you to call my name?”

Lü Xiuzhen froze. Seeing her expression as cold as frost, he remembered her bright and gentle manner when they first married, and a dull pain spread through his heart.

She had saved his life years ago. How had he repaid her?

He was the one who had transformed that gentle, innocent princess into the woman before him!

Had he known today would come, why had he behaved that way at the beginning?

He said with deep emotion, “I know everything about what happened years ago. You were the one who saved me, not Gao Yanyan. You were my benefactor, not Gao Yanyan. How hateful that a vile person blinded me. I did so many things that hurt and humiliated you. I truly do not know how to express my remorse!”

Princess Qinghe blinked at him.

“I ordered Gao Yanyan beaten to death. You are not angry?”

“How could I be angry with you? Even if she were still alive, I would never spare her!”

At the mention of Gao Yanyan, hostility surged between Lü Xiuzhen’s brows. He said with venom, “Had that wretch not sowed discord and stolen your merit, how could matters between us have reached this state? She was no decent person even then, and in the end she proved herself even more vicious and cunning. A base woman like her deserved to die!”

Princess Qinghe’s bafflement deepened.

“Did you not love her?”

“The princess alone occupies every thought in my heart!”

Lü Xiuzhen grew emotional and hurriedly explained, “If that wretch had not cunningly stolen the princess’s merit, why would I ever have paid attention to her? Now that she has been executed and everything returned to its proper place, I cannot despise her enough. How could I still care?”

Princess Qinghe had no answer to that.
Princess Qinghe stared blankly for a long while before finally understanding. “Oh, I see. Before, you believed Gao Yanyan was your savior, so you loved her. Now you know I was your true savior, so you love me instead?”

“No,” Lü Xiuzhen corrected her gently. “The princess is the one I have always loved. Lady Gao’s honeyed words merely blinded me, and for a time I loved the wrong person.”

Princess Qinghe regarded him with a complicated expression.

Lü Xiuzhen gazed back with profound devotion.

After a long silence, Princess Qinghe asked, “Do you still remember the shape and material of your jade pendant?”

Lü Xiuzhen smiled. “How could I forget? Naturally, I have always kept it in my heart.”

Princess Qinghe nodded and gestured toward the sandalwood chests beneath the corridor. “Go find it.”

Lü Xiuzhen was astonished. “Now?”

“Yes. Now,” Princess Qinghe replied.

Two chests were opened. Under the brilliant lamps and clear night sky, pearls and jade glowed with an unmistakably mellow luster.

Lü Xiuzhen crouched and searched through them piece by piece. Princess Qinghe waited in her chair, watching him coldly, the meaning in her eyes impossible to read.

About fifteen minutes later, Lü Xiuzhen’s eyes suddenly brightened. He exclaimed with delight, “I found it!”

He rose holding a Lantian Jade Pendant and turned a tender gaze upon Princess Qinghe, his smile overflowing. “It truly was here.”

Then he said with some regret, “Since the princess kept this pendant all along, why did you not bring it out sooner? It was terribly unfortunate for such a misunderstanding to occur. Lady Gao seized the opening and created an estrangement between husband and wife for no reason.”

Princess Qinghe replied, “I told you the pendant remained with me and that you were the person I saved years ago. Since the question was which of us was truly your savior, should you not have asked me to produce the pendant? How has this become my fault again?”

Seeing her displeased face and hearing the chill in her voice, Lü Xiuzhen hurriedly softened his expression. “Everything was my fault. Let us not mention it anymore. Let the past remain in the past. From now on, I will certainly treat the princess well!”

He handed the pendant to a maid, who presented it to Princess Qinghe. Princess Qinghe lifted it by the tassel and examined it several times before shaking her head. “It cannot remain in the past.”

Lü Xiuzhen smiled awkwardly and hurriedly bowed. “I was indeed at fault. I hope the princess will be magnanimous and not hold it against me…”

Princess Qinghe ignored this entirely. Holding up the pendant, she asked coldly, “This is the pendant from years ago, is it not?”

Lü Xiuzhen’s gaze was tender. “Naturally.”

Princess Qinghe casually tossed the pendant into the courtyard.

Startled, Lü Xiuzhen hurried outside to pick it up. “Why would the princess do this?”

Her cold gaze left Lü Xiuzhen frozen and speechless.

Princess Qinghe continued, “I am truly curious. If the person who saved you years ago had been a man, what would you have done? What if a cow or a leopard had happened to save you? How would you have managed then? Is offering your body in marriage the only way you know to repay a life-saving debt?”

Lü Xiuzhen seemed struck by lightning. He stammered but could find no answer.

Princess Qinghe rose and walked into the corridor. Looking down upon him, she shook her head. “Lü Xiuzhen, you are not worth that much. Truly. Your body is worthless. Gao Yanyan touched it, and I find it filthy. Your love is even more worthless. Let another savior appear at random, and perhaps you will elope with her next. I do not need you to become my husband because I saved you years ago. I rescued you from a passing impulse of kindness, because saving one life brings greater merit than building a seven-story pagoda. Now you say you intend to spend the rest of your life treating me well. Is that not repaying kindness with malice?”

Her words were mercilessly sharp. They tore away the mask covering Lü Xiuzhen, separating skin from flesh and leaving him raw and bloody. While he tangled his tongue and had no idea how to answer, a snow-bright bolt of lightning suddenly split the sky, followed by a deafening clap of thunder.

The spring rain that had gathered for half the night finally arrived.

Princess Qinghe raised her face toward the sky. The rain began as fine as ox hair, rustling down through the air. Soon it grew heavier, pattering against the ground and drumming upon the roof tiles.

Something stirred in her heart. Her gaze drifted far away as she murmured, “It rained like this then as well…”

Court Lady Du and the others did not understand. Lü Xiuzhen was even more baffled. He stepped closer and called tenderly, “Jingrou?”

Princess Qinghe abruptly returned to herself. Her expression turned severe. “Gag him. Bring the punishment boards!”

The servants froze briefly, then understood. They stepped forward to restrain Lü Xiuzhen while someone else found material to gag him.

Caught entirely off guard, Lü Xiuzhen continued struggling. “Jingrou, what are you doing?!”

Then they forced him to the ground.

Princess Qinghe stood beneath the corridor, suppressing the fire in her heart. One word emerged from between her teeth. “Strike.”

A manor guard asked respectfully, “How many strokes does the princess command?”

With his mouth gagged, Lü Xiuzhen struggled violently and looked at her with a face full of pleading.

Just like Luan Jingrou in the dream.

The same heavy rain. The same people. Only their positions had reversed.

Cause and consequence moved in a circle. Retribution never failed.

An ethereal, icy smile touched Princess Qinghe’s lips. “Until he is dead.”