Chapter 1

# Chapter 1

I came to the Central Plains as a bride for peace.

Xizhou and the Central Plains had been at war for decades. Beginning with my mother’s generation, the two realms opened trade and arranged marriages between their royal houses.

Before I left, I spent two whole months learning court etiquette. I was terrified that some misstep would disgrace my parents. To my surprise, however, both the Crown Prince and the Crown Princess were kind people.

The Crown Prince was gentle and treated me with courtesy.

The Crown Princess was lively, spirited, and charming.

At our first meeting, she sat high above me with an amiable smile, asking after my health from a stately distance of three feet.

I knew women of the Central Plains were all polite yet reserved like this. They called it the bearing of a well-bred lady.

I offered her tea according to custom. She accepted it with a grave expression, then waved all the servants out of the room.

I assumed she meant to lecture me while no one was watching, and my fingers instinctively tightened around my skirt. If it came to a fight, I was not afraid of her. Had peace between our two realms not depended on it, I would never have married so far from home.

Yet the moment the servants withdrew, her rigid spine went slack. She even tucked one leg up beneath her. No matter how I looked at her, she no longer resembled a proper young lady.

She beckoned me to sit beside her and asked with a grin, “Ah Zhu, can you use a nine-section whip?”

I had known how to wield one since I was five.

There was not a woman on the grasslands who could not.

Her eyes lit up. She clasped both hands around mine and said, laughing, “Then when we have time, let’s go to the training ground and spar.”

That was when I understood that her well-bred composure was only for show. The Crown Princess was, in truth, a delightful person.

When the Crown Prince entered, she was boasting to me about her chestnut mare. The instant she spotted the attendants behind him from the corner of her eye, she sat bolt upright. The movement was so abrupt that her nail raked hard across my palm.

She discreetly hid her broken nail and, as though nothing had happened, said with perfect dignity, “Dear sister, now that you are here, you must devote yourself to serving His Highness. How about this? Tomorrow morning, we shall collect dew from lotus leaves and brew tea for our husband.”

I swear I saw a vein jump on the Crown Prince’s forehead.

Of course, only around the Crown Princess did he ever relax so openly.

Whenever I met him alone, he was no different from the man everyone else saw: mild, courteous, and clad in a dark blue brocade robe. Seated there, he somehow reminded me of the mountains of the Central Plains.

On our wedding night, I was terribly nervous.

Several matrons scrubbed and dressed me from head to toe, washing away the dust of my two-month journey. They put me in the clothes of the Central Plains, covered my face with a scarlet veil, and seated me in the bridal chamber to wait obediently for the husband who would be mine for life.

Lotus seeds, red dates, and peanuts had been scattered across the bedding beneath me. They dug uncomfortably into my legs, but the matrons said they symbolized the wish that I would soon bear a noble son.

Despite my two months of lessons, I still could not understand such fussy customs. On our grasslands, a man and woman married because they loved each other. If they had never ridden together, never shot arrows side by side, never sworn vows beneath the moon beside a bonfire, how could they possibly become husband and wife?

In the Central Plains, everything was reversed. He was an imperial prince, and I was a princess of the grasslands. Our stations matched, so it seemed we had been born to marry.

But I had never even seen him. I did not love him, nor did I expect him to love me. How were we supposed to “soon bear a noble son”?

The people of the Central Plains cared so much about propriety that they seemed to have forgotten what love was meant to be.

I waited a long time before the Crown Prince finally arrived. He lifted my veil and silently studied me by candlelight while I stole a look at him in the moonlight.

My husband was neither dark from the sun nor powerfully built like my father. I wondered whether he could even draw one of our longbows meant for hunting eagles.

Apart from looking somewhat slender, though, he was very handsome-the sort of beauty people likened to warm, polished jade. His features were serene, and when he gave a faint smile, his robes drifted like clouds.

Instead of sharing the ceremonial wedding wine with me, he poured me a cup of hot tea. When he spoke, his voice was low.

“You have traveled so far to marry me. I know what a sacrifice this is.”

The unease I had carried across a thousand miles dissolved beneath those words. My nose stung. I quickly drank some tea and forced back the tears prickling my eyes.

He continued, “I heard you spent a long time learning our rules. In truth, there are not so many rules in my household. From now on, this is your home. Do as you please, so long as the sky does not come crashing down. Do you understand?”

“As for the Crown Princess…” He paused, as though recalling something amusing, and an unconscious smile curved his lips. “You saw her today. She is restless by nature, but she knows what matters. If anything troubles you, you may always speak to her.”

After saying all this, he fell silent. I had nothing to say to him either, and soon the room held only the crackle of the red bridal candles.

In that deep quiet, shyness slowly crept over me, as if the candle flame had somehow spread across my skin. I knew something was supposed to happen that night. I simply did not know when or how.

I let my thoughts run wild until, just as I was steeling myself to strip off his clothes, he spoke again.

“Are you tired? It is late. You should sleep.”

“Of course I’m tired, but… we’re just going to sleep?”

His hands stilled as he spread the bedding. He turned to look at me. “How else would you like to sleep?”

Heat exploded across my face. “Th-then we can sleep just like this.”

He gave a soft laugh and said no more. Patting the empty place beside him, he motioned for me to lie down.

I had spent two months jolting along the road and had not enjoyed a full night’s rest once. He carried a cool, clean scent I could not name, but it smelled wonderfully pleasant.

After breathing it in twice, I finally relaxed.

I woke before dawn to a flash of light in the room. Rubbing my eyes, I saw that it came from a dagger.

Terror snapped me fully awake. I sprang from the bed and lunged for the blade in his hand.

Though he looked slim and frail, he was surprisingly strong, and my ambush failed.

“Don’t!”

“Careful!”

He deftly turned the dagger. The blade swung away from me and pointed toward himself.

“Why are you trying to kill yourself?” I cried.

He stared at me in surprise, then laughed. “I am not trying to kill myself. Do not worry.”

He found a square of spotless white cloth among the bedding, cut his finger, and smeared the blood across it.

My lessons had taught me what the cloth was for. I simply had not expected him to think even of protecting me from this particular humiliation.

Blushing, I thanked him. He blinked, then tucked me back beneath the quilt.

“We have another hour before we enter the palace to pay our respects. Sleep a little longer. I am accustomed to practicing swordsmanship at dawn.”

I could not fall asleep again. Curled beneath the quilt, I pressed that bloodstained cloth to my heart. The proof of my virginity was false, but I had truly become one of the Crown Prince’s women.

I missed the cattle, sheep, wind, and sand of the grasslands. I missed my father and mother too. Still, the Crown Princess was good, and the Crown Prince treated me kindly.

A blade of grass carried here from the prairie would, in the end, have to put down roots in the Central Plains.