Chapter 7

I taught Lu Chuyao as usual and wandered around the Eastern Palace in my free time.

There was little of importance in the outer courtyard, and Zhong Rui had ordered that I be treated courteously, so no one paid much attention to me.

I also pretended not to notice the turmoil beneath this calm surface.

The Daoist had vanished from the slum right under the Eastern Palace’s spies’ noses.

The covert guards who’d posed as thugs searched the entire city. All they learned was that an unknown young man had passed by that day and carried the Daoist home. There wasn’t another clue.

It was said that when they reported back, Zhong Rui simply ordered them to return to their unit.

But in truth, none of those men was ever seen again.

Zhong Rui’s expression grew graver by the day. Lu Chuyao, by contrast, seemed to know nothing about it.

During practice one day, she said, “It’s so strange. The carp in the garden pond hasn’t been eating lately. It barely comes up even when I visit. It won’t starve, will it?”

I tapped her fingers lightly. “It’s only a fish, Your Highness. Concentrate.”

“It’s not an ordinary fish.”

Lu Chuyao collected herself and plucked the strings. “His Highness has kept it for years. If it dies, he’ll be heartbroken again.”

My fingers paused as I corrected her hand position. “Again…?”

She sighed. “Yes. He used to have a fox, apparently one he’d raised since he was little. But I never saw it after we married. Some servants said it ran away, others that it died. Whatever happened, His Highness was upset for days.”

“Oh dear. I’ll have someone find some better fish food later… Ah Yin? Why are you staring?”

I came back to myself and shook my head. “It’s nothing. Could you practice that half of the piece again, Your Highness?”

She did as I asked.

I lowered my gaze to her throat.

The pendant set with the charm pearl still hung there every day.

But only I could see the threads of red light drifting from the pearl and sinking, little by little, into my chest.

Before long, the thing around her neck would be an ordinary pearl.

Lu Chuyao was gradually losing the power to win everyone’s love.

Even that silly fish was ignoring her now.

But I kept turning her words over in my mind.

What did she mean, she’d never seen me after the wedding?

Hadn’t she been the one who wanted the charm pearl?

That night, I went to feed the fish.

I crouched beside the pond and scattered a handful of food.

There really was no movement.

Could that greedy fish actually resist?

I giggled. “Silly fish, I was teasing. No one’s going to kill you and eat you.”

Ripples spread, and the big carp suddenly poked its head up.

It swam frantically back and forth, swallowing food and waving its tail.

As though it were cursing me.

I sat down beside the water with my knees drawn up and watched it swim freely.

In the old days, whenever I got in, I always crowded it into a corner.

The pond was shallow. My splashing sent water everywhere, while it huddled miserably to one side.

Once, Zhong Rui passed by and stopped to watch me romping in the water. After a while, unable to spot the fish, he thought I’d swallowed it whole.

Alarmed, he had someone fish me out and examined my belly himself for ages, making sure it was flat.

He’d only just put me down when he looked again and saw the fish gliding at the surface.

He let out a relieved breath and flicked my ear through the drying cloth.

“Father gave me that fish. Don’t you eat it, or you’ll get no meat for three days!”

By then, the food at the Eastern Palace had made me increasingly fussy.

One sniff told me whether an ordinary piece of meat was fresh. If it wasn’t to my liking, I wouldn’t touch it.

So Zhong Rui had meat broth simmered for me.

And what delicious broth it was.

From then on, he came to feed me a bowl himself every day.

Right up to his wedding day.