chapter 3
The lantern festival ended amid a crackle of firecrackers.
When Shen Miaoyi returned from Magpie Bridge, her eyes were slightly red and her shoulders trembled.
She had probably gotten her wish and was overcome with excitement.
The next day, the prince’s residence sent over a great many expensive gifts.
The Princess Consort came in person to propose the match.
Chewing on a reed, I thought that Tang Su was marrying the woman he loved, and the display really was on another scale.
In the main hall, the Princess Consort took a sip of tea and glanced at Shen Miaoyi.
“That brocade was clearly a gift from my sister, the Empress, to Ningshu. Why is someone else wearing it?”
Mother smiled awkwardly.
“There was only one bolt. I could hardly mistreat the late General Shen’s daughter.”
The Princess Consort shook her head with a sigh.
“You truly leave me at a loss for words.”
“Never mind. My son specifically asked for the Second Miss. Once she marries into our residence, we will hardly lack a bolt of brocade.”
Mother squeezed Shen Miaoyi’s hand and hastily agreed.
“Of course. Our Zhou family’s Second Miss is the finest young lady of all!”
Beside her, Shen Miaoyi looked as though she wanted to speak. She lowered her head unnaturally.
I let my eyelids droop.
I was too sleepy to take any of it in.
The Princess Consort smiled. “Look how exhausted the child is.”
She beckoned to me. “Come closer and let me see you.”
I was about to step forward.
Mother stopped me and apologized repeatedly to the Princess Consort.
“My younger daughter is foolish and coarse. She grew up muddleheaded and is forever stealing Miaoyi’s things. She is nothing but a pretty face attached to a block of wood.”
“She is unfit for refined company. I apologize for letting Your Highness see such a spectacle.”
I lowered my head.
From her account, one would think I had committed every unforgivable crime in the world.
The Princess Consort shook her head and said gently, “It does not matter. I like what I see of the child. She is hardly as dreadful as you claim.”
I raised my eyes, my heart stirring.
I suddenly remembered that, after I married Tang Su in my previous life, she had loved me as her own daughter.
When I became gravely ill, she had prayed to every god beneath the heavens and begged them to take years from her life in exchange for a few more of mine.
But I still had not lived to see twenty.
I did not know what happened afterward.
At the thought, I gave her a sweet smile.
Mother thought I was being ingratiating. She clapped a hand hard over my face and ordered me to leave.
I bowed and withdrew.
Before I left, the Princess Consort’s warm voice mingled with the rustling bamboo.
“My son will leave court soon. He will stop by on his way home to pay his respects to the Second Miss.”
I hurried straight back to the side courtyard.
That cursed man made my skin crawl even at the thought of seeing him.
I rolled up my sleeves, sat on a wooden stump, and resumed weaving bamboo baskets. If I made two more for Xiao Yuan to sell, I would have just enough travel money.
“Second Miss!”
Speak of Xiao Yuan, and Xiao Yuan appeared.
The nimble maid hunched her shoulders and sidled mysteriously to my ear, producing a tiny red-bean sweet.
“The Young Prince sent a message especially for you. He says he is lovesick and wants to see Second Miss at once.”
“Do you think they mistook Miss Shen…?”
I tapped her little head.
“Silly girl. Shen Miaoyi is two years older than I am. Mother specifically said that she is now the Zhou family’s Second Miss. Have even you forgotten? Hurry and take the message to her courtyard.”
“But…”
“No buts!”
Tang Su could not possibly have come to see me.
Besides, I wanted to avoid him just as much.
Who could he be pining for if not Shen Miaoyi, the woman he had thought of again and again in our last life?
After delivering the message, Xiao Yuan returned and crouched beside me to weave baskets for a while.
She slapped the bamboo strips absentmindedly, then could not resist asking, “In the past, whatever Miss Miaoyi had, you would fight to get one for yourself.”
“You would fight with all your might for everything from hairpins to horses. Why are you interested in everything except the greatest prize of all, the Young Prince?”
I arched a brow and lowered my voice teasingly.
“Ah, you don’t know. He is impotent.”
Xiao Yuan burst out laughing.
“I don’t believe you. Miss is always joking around!”
“If you truly have no interest in him, could it be that… someone else has already caught your heart?”
I considered the question, then suddenly smiled brightly.
“Of course!”
The words had barely left my mouth when I saw someone standing outside the courtyard, expressionless. The pear-blossom branch in his hand snapped in two.