chapter 3

Chapter 3

I understood Mother’s warning and ignored it anyway.

Shen Zhaoye still disliked being touched, so I told myself he was simply cold by nature and unaccustomed to closeness.

I repeated that lie until I believed it.

If I moved half a step closer and he did not retreat, I moved closer still and took his hand.

When I said I wanted to learn the saber, he said it was too heavy for me.

I insisted.

So he carved me a light wooden sword. “Start with this.”

I scowled. “Wooden swords are for children.”

He glanced at me. “You aren’t even as capable as a child.”

I tried to hit him.

He caught my wrist and guided me through a graceful turn of the blade.

The wind stirred his hair, and my heart stumbled.

After that, I pestered him for lessons every day. He taught earnestly; I learned carelessly.

Most of the time, I was too busy watching him.

I even began to think that if I truly had to marry, marrying Shen Zhaoye might not be so bad.

The Li family had influence, and Mother doted on me. His mysterious past did not matter; I could investigate it for him. If he had no home, the Li residence could become one.

The more I thought about it, the more sensible it seemed.

I had even chosen the courtyard where we would live and considered whether the betrothal gifts needed to be anything more than a formality.

Just as I was about to ask whether he would marry me, he came to take his leave with a bundle over his shoulder.

“My lady, I am leaving. Thank you for sheltering me this past year.”

I thought I had misheard. “Where are you going?”

He would not say.

“Consider Shen an ingrate. I have found a more powerful patron.”

I laughed in fury.

“Shen Zhaoye, do you understand that aside from the man on the dragon throne, there is no one in all Chang’an richer than I, Li Xianxian?”

He did not dispute it. “I am unworthy of your affection.”

He bowed and walked away.

Only after he vanished around the corner did Xiao Tao ask softly, “My lady, shall I have someone drag him back?”

I raised a hand.

“No. Send someone to follow him.”

I intended to discover who had the poor judgment to steal a man from Li Xianxian.

The lamps in my room burned until the third watch.

The servant I had sent out knelt beyond the door.

“My lady, Young Master Shen entered a residence in Springwater Lane.”

I sneered, threw on an outer robe, and rose.

Xiao Tao hurried after me. “It’s so late. Shouldn’t we take more people?”

I pulled the riding crop from its rack.

“No. Catching an adulterer is less entertaining with an audience.”

Springwater Lane was remote. At night, it did not have a single decent lamp.

Two plain lanterns hung outside the residence, and warm incense drifted faintly from within.

Every breath made me angrier.

So he had spent a year playing the aloof gentleman in my courtyard, only to come here and kneel with tea and incense before someone else.

The door was unbarred. One push opened it.

I stormed all the way into the main room.

The candlelight was soft. Shen Zhaoye knelt before the couch, offering tea with near-reverence.

I had never seen him like that.

My vision went black with rage.

“Wonderful. I buried you in gold and silver, and you wouldn’t accept any of it. Yet here you are, eager to be somebody else’s dog!”

As the last word left my mouth, a hand emerged from behind the gauze curtain.

The beauty on the couch raised her eyes lazily. Her hair was half-pinned, her lips curved red, her features so dazzling they hardly seemed real.

“You came quickly.”

My riding crop hit the floor. My soul nearly fled my body.

“Mother?!”