Chapter 5

Chi Song, the Heir of Beiyang, had been forcibly sent into the palace ten days earlier.

He had arrived with a stormy face, as if the whole world owed him money.

Imperial Father did not meet him alone. Instead, he ordered my Second Imperial Brother to arrange a palace residence for him.

Afterward, my brother casually mentioned that Chi Song’s temper was every bit as bad as rumor claimed.

I paid it no attention. At the time, my thoughts were entirely occupied by when Shen Yanbai would enter the palace to ask for my hand.

By the sixth day, I could wait no longer. I changed into ordinary clothes and prepared to leave the palace.

As I passed one of the halls, I saw several palace maids gathered at its gate, craning their necks to peer inside.

I scolded them. Once they apologized and withdrew, I cast a casual glance through the gate.

Then I forgot to look away.

Inside, a man with his hair in a high ponytail practiced with a spear. In his hands, the weapon seemed alive, transforming into a serpent that struck to kill.

A belt cinched his lean waist. With no expensive jade ornaments to adorn him, he radiated natural strength.

His muscles drew taut as he hurled the spear. Its point plunged straight into the ground, the shaft quivering from the force.

He looked at me.

Something in my chest seemed to tremble with the spear.

I should have left the palace to find Shen Yanbai.

Instead, after meeting that man’s eyes, I returned to Xingyun Hall in a daze.

For the next three days, my feet refused to move whenever I reached that gate, as though an invisible hand held me in place.

I found myself watching Chi Song practice martial arts, spearwork, and saberwork.

He was nothing like the young noblemen of the capital.

He possessed neither my Second Imperial Brother’s refined elegance nor Shen Yanbai’s sickly frailty.

A thought suddenly surfaced in my mind: a bedmate like him would surely keep the blankets warm.

I was appalled at myself.

For six years, I had thought only of Shen Yanbai. My Eldest Imperial Sister had enough consorts to fill two tables at a traditional leaf-card game, while I believed I had inherited Imperial Father and Imperial Mother’s devotion. I had never dallied with others. How could I covet another man after setting my heart on Shen Yanbai?

To bring myself back to my senses, I hurried to Imperial Father on the fifth day and raised the subject of my marriage.

He agreed, saying he would write the marriage decree after finishing the memorials before him.

Then I saw Shen Yanbai painting Cheng Shu.

Perhaps fate truly had its own designs.

If six years had still failed to bring Shen Yanbai and me together, perhaps we really were unsuited to each other.

After finishing his instructions to the eunuchs, Chi Song walked toward me without glancing aside. “So you’re the Third Princess I’m to marry. I remember you. You often…”

I coughed, cutting him off.

My image would suffer if people learned that I had secretly watched Chi Song train every day.

My gaze drifted inadvertently toward Shen Yanbai. He looked stunned, his lips trembling as he asked in a low voice, “Marriage? Ci’an, what did he say?”