Chapter 14

Chapter 14

There was no rise or fall of emotion in his voice.

Even so, I smiled and said, “It doesn’t matter. The dead are gone, and the living must go on. She is already Your Majesty’s Shuyuan.”

“You…”

Zhao Ling frowned at me, displeasure seeming to gather in his eyes. “I do not like those words. The dead may be gone, but longing remains. How can the living ever be the same as before? Ah Xian and I can never go back. She is a good girl, and she has suffered terribly. Since she is still alive, I will take good care of her. But beyond that, there is nothing else.”

After a pause, he added, “Shuyuan is a rank you gave her. She did not have to become my consort at all.”

The night was deep and quiet. The lamp beyond the gauze curtains had dimmed. It was clear he was not pleased; his brows were faintly drawn together.

So I said, “It was my fault. I acted on my own.”

I lowered my eyes and admitted my mistake with an excellent attitude.

He said nothing more. He only drew me into his arms and kissed my forehead, his voice carrying a trace of softness and helplessness. “Rong’er.”

I closed my eyes in his embrace and slept peacefully.

He wanted what lay between him and Qiao Jingxian to begin in affection and end within propriety, to preserve the same beautiful friendship they had shared in childhood.

That was why he blamed me for deciding on my own to make her a Shuyuan.

He said she did not have to become his consort at all.

But I knew that cousin-uncle of the Xu family far too well.

He was a Daoist master, always in fluttering white robes, free of desire and worldly wants, forever smiling gently at others.

And he was also the one who had incited Prince Jingnan to murder the imperial heirs, then incited Prince Liang to kill Prince Jingnan.

A master at playing the game of power, he had pointed casually at me when I was five years old and pushed my life into the struggle for imperial authority.

Everyone in the Xu family respected him. Feared him.

Even on the day Prince Liang died, before setting out after building an altar to offer sacrifice to Heaven, Xu Xun had cast a divination. First, he told Prince Liang, “If you travel today, I fear there will be bloodshed.”

Prince Liang immediately drew back, but Xu Xun only smiled again. “The bloodshed should be His Majesty’s.”

Zhao Cui trusted him that much.

Yet when Zhao Cui’s head was separated from his body, that white-robed Daoist master was already at Prince Huai’an’s side, watching the mutiny at the suburban sacrifice with clicking admiration and obvious delight.

The bloodshed was His Majesty’s.

When Zhao Ling returned carrying Prince Liang’s head, the blood spattered across his face left me shaken for a long time.

As long as Xu Xun lived, the struggle for imperial power would never cease.

Only with Qiao Jingxian under my very eyes could I be at ease.

About a month after she entered the palace, I once hinted to her indirectly, “His Majesty is busy with state affairs, and the inner palace was short on people to begin with, making it rather cold and lonely. Consort Qiao Shuyuan, Cairen Zheng, and I are all like sisters within the family, so please don’t be distant. If you have any difficulties or worries, you may speak of them.”

Cairen Zheng had been arranged into the palace by Prince Huai’an while Prince Liang was still alive.

She was a clever woman and had laid all her cards on the table early on.

She had a younger brother who was a servant in Prince Huai’an’s residence. The two siblings had no control over their own fates.

The advantage of laying all her cards on the table was that, one day, when her brother went out following Prince Huai’an’s carriage and happened to be walking at the very rear, someone simply abducted him.

Ever since her brother was taken, Cairen Zheng, who had always been cautious in word and deed, suddenly became bold and carefree.

Even her voice grew louder, and all day long she laughed like a duck, quacking away.

Every time she came to Jiaofang Hall, I had to glare at her.

Because every single time, she woke Heqing with all that noise.

Qiao Jingxian also came to Jiaofang Hall from time to time. After paying her respects, she would silently watch Cairen Zheng tease the child.