Chapter 4
When summer arrived, the Empress held a banquet at the Western Hills Palace.
Anyone with eyes could tell she intended to inspect the eligible young noblewomen.
The Crown Prince showed no interest.
“Junyao, now that your illness is cured, it is time you married,” the Empress urged.
At the mention of his illness, Xiao Junyao’s sharp gaze cut toward the eunuch beside him.
The eunuch blanched and fell to his knees.
The Empress waved all the servants away. Her eyes reddened. “I failed to protect you then. That was why you fell ill.”
Irritation churned inside Xiao Junyao, but he answered patiently, “Let us not speak of old matters, Mother. I will take a proper look at the ladies today.”
It was a forbidden subject in the palace.
Five years ago, Xiao Junyao had just turned fifteen. The Empress was sickly then, and the Imperial Noble Consort controlled the inner palace.
The Consort secretly drugged him with a powerful aphrodisiac and sent six palace maids to surround him.
That night, Xiao Junyao drove a blade through his own palm and escaped the bedchamber on the last thread of consciousness.
It left a lasting wound. From that day on, touching a woman made him retch uncontrollably.
Years later, when his wings were fully grown and power lay in his hands, the Imperial Noble Consort became nothing more than a dead soul.
The Empress, however, never stopped blaming herself.
Half a year ago, the Crown Prince returned from among the common people, miraculously cured.
Relieved by her son’s concession, the Empress began the banquet.
The young noblewomen vied for attention with poetry, paintings, and music.
When it was Lin Langyue’s turn, she played an ordinary piece on the pipa. Nothing about it stood out.
But as she withdrew, a jade pendant fell to the ground.
The Crown Prince shot to his feet.
He strode down and stared at Lin Langyue. “At last, I have found you.”
“The woman he searched for all this time was Lin Langyue!”
“Heavens, I envy her.”
“The position of Crown Princess must be hers.”
The noblewomen whispered from a distance, unable to hide their envy.
I sat behind them, crunching loudly on pastries.
A young nobleman crept over and glanced around nervously. “Senior Sister! Why did you dare come here? If the Crown Prince discovers the truth, we are both finished.”
I choked.
He obediently poured me tea at once.
Someone called out, “Isn’t that Young General Cheng?”
“He is pouring tea for a woman as meekly as a servant.”
“Could she be his sweetheart?”
Every eye turned toward us.
Hearing all the praise, I asked in surprise, “You are this popular?”
Cheng Zhi puffed up. “I may never beat you and Master may always scold me, but in the capital I am one of its most notable young gentlemen.”
“Notable, are you? Starting from the bottom?” I asked calmly. “Only a great idiot could mistake the Crown Prince for a male courtesan and send him to me.”
Cheng Zhi’s face drained of color. He clapped a hand over my mouth.
The internal art I practiced was called the Pure Yang Art.
Master said someone as straightforward as me, free of distracting thoughts, was perfectly suited to it. My martial arts did advance by leaps and bounds.
But when I turned eighteen, I began to get nosebleeds whenever I circulated my energy. At night, heat raged through me and kept me awake.
Ugly men irritated me. Handsome men irritated me even more.
Cheng Zhi took more than a few beatings because of it.
Each time, he would sprawl on the ground and complain, “Master, Senior Sister is going mad from frustration! Think of something.”
At last, Master realized the problem. “Oh. My disciple is grown. She needs a man.”
Unfortunately, the right man was not easy to find. He needed an innately cold constitution to disperse the energy in my body.
Cheng Zhi and I searched several prefectures without success.
Then, on the night the blocked energy in my technique erupted, I sat in a tub of ice water, silently reciting a mind-clearing mantra.
Cheng Zhi shouted anxiously outside the door. “Senior Sister! I found one!”
“I paid five hundred taels for him.”
“He is on the way. Hold on a little longer.”
The man arrived.
He was blind.
Dressed in white, he stood before me as cold as frost.
“Touching a woman makes me vomit,” he said icily. “And I am impotent. If that does not disgust you, you may try.”
I wanted to twist Cheng Zhi’s head off and kick it like a ball.
What use was a man who looked good but could do nothing?
I threw on a robe and took the blind man’s hand. “I’ll lead you out. Give me back my money and get lost.”
But distracted and restless, I slipped. I dragged him into the ice water with me.
The cold shocked him into wrapping his arms around me.
And then…
I looked down at him in confusion. “What do you call this? Playing hard to get?”
Not only did he fail to vomit, his reaction was unmistakable.
Very unmistakable.
He flushed all the way down his neck from humiliation.
Wet hair clung to his beautiful, glacial face. I brushed it aside, and my fingertip accidentally grazed his lips.
He gave a soft gasp.
I kissed him.
“If you do not want this, push me away.”
Instead, he gripped my shoulders, his body trembling.
“I cannot repay five hundred taels,” he murmured indistinctly.