chapter 2

chapter 2

As soon as I returned to the palace, I went to the Throne Hall.

Fu Yanci sat on the dragon throne. The light was dim and he was too far away for me to make out his expression, so I merely lowered my head and reported with due respect, “Your Majesty, there were no problems with the ceremonial robes. Miss Shen was very pleased.”

He gave a distracted hum, then looked down at me. His gaze was dark and unreadable.

Only after a while did he ask, “Is your injury any better?”

I touched the wound on my forehead without thinking. It still stung.

Three days earlier, an imperial censor had denounced Shen Mingyue’s enthronement ceremony as too lavish and wasteful. He had gone on to accuse Fu Yanci of treating a benefactor like me too harshly. The emperor, he argued, ought to reward me—even the low rank of Beauty would be enough to demonstrate his benevolence.

Fu Yanci flew into a rage and hurled the cup on his desk.

It struck me squarely on the forehead.

Blood poured down my face. The sight was terrifying.

Ignoring the pain, I dropped to my knees and said earnestly, “Please calm yourself, Your Majesty. It is only right that a servant attend her master. How could I use old favors to demand a reward? I ask for no rank. I wish only that Your Majesty enjoy a lifetime of health and peace.”

I had meant every word.

Fu Yanci had once saved my life.

In return, I would see him kept safe.

No one believed me.

They assumed my humility was a performance meant to beg for his pity.

They thought me unbearably false.

Fu Yanci himself gave a cold snort and turned away as if the very sight of me disgusted him.

I knew enough to withdraw.

Only after I returned to my room did I dare let myself collapse.

I had suffered greatly during our confinement. A scar still crossed my chest from the arrow I had taken for Fu Yanci.

I had almost died then.

The imperial physician said my body was too weak to withstand another injury. The cup Fu Yanci threw drew so much blood that I remained unconscious for two days.

When I woke, the wound had already been dressed.

Before I could ask who had been kind enough to summon a physician, I was ordered to deliver the wedding robes to the Shen residence.

Judging by Fu Yanci’s question now, he must have sent the doctor.

I bowed deeply. “I am well now. Thank you for your concern, Your Majesty.”

He did not answer.

I turned to leave, but his voice came from behind me. “Sang Zhi, is the wish you made at sixteen still unchanged?”

His voice was low and soft, yet beneath it lay something repressed, cold, and violent.

I stopped without looking back.

“It has not changed.”

“Not once.”

When I opened the door to my room, the same bitter smell of medicine greeted me.

Breathing it in, I dreamed.

I dreamed of my sixteenth birthday.

The Cold Palace had been dim that day. Rain tapped steadily outside, and a draft slipped through the room, making me shiver.

Fu Yanci wrapped the only blanket around both of us. It was improper, but by then no one cared what became of us.

He asked, “Sang Sang, do you have a wish? Tell me. I’ll make it come true.”

I laughed inwardly at his grand promise, but answered seriously, “I only wish to leave the palace when I come of age.”

He stared at me. “Leave? Is the palace not good enough?”

I pressed my lips together. “No.”

“I only want a quiet, ordinary life.”

To marry, have children, and pass my days in peace.

The cruelty, malice, and viciousness of palace life had frightened every scrap of courage out of me.

But Fu Yanci grew angry.

He caught my chin and forced me to look at him, his voice colder than I had ever heard it. “What about me? If you leave, what am I supposed to do?”

Startled, I recoiled.

The next moment, he pulled me into his arms. His warm breath curled around my ear, making my heart tingle and burn.

“Sang Sang, I’ll treat you well. Stay with me, all right?”

There was almost a coaxing note in his voice.

I was silent for a long time before slowly raising my arms around him.

“All right.”

“I will stay with you, Your Highness.”

Delight lit his face. He promised me so many things.

Once he was restored, he said, he would make me his crown princess. He would cherish me. We would be the only two in each other’s lives. What we had endured together was a bond no one else could ever rival.

I stared at the rain outside and listened without saying a word.

When he was restored, every promise he had made to me went instead to Shen Mingyue.

I was not surprised.

I only thought, Thank goodness I never believed him.