Chapter 5

Chapter 5

The guards immediately moved to throw me aside.

Panic all over my face, I apologized over and over while clinging tightly to the carriage rail, using it to pull myself up.

As I rose, the slip of paper clenched in my hand tumbled neatly into the carriage.

Mu Yuchang had written it.

I’d originally wanted to pass it to the guards, but I was afraid they would turn right around and report it to the Beidi. My only option was to slip it directly into the Grand Princess’s carriage.

The wheels rolled past before my eyes, never once stopping.

But just as I turned away, someone suddenly slapped me across the face.

It landed on the side of my jaw with a sharp crack, loud and frightening.

But it was an open-handed slap without much force, so it didn’t really hurt.

The person who slapped me cursed me furiously, accusing me of stealing from the Grand Princess.

I felt terribly wronged, but I was given no chance to defend myself. They dragged me away for questioning.

I closed my eyes, thinking I was about to be thrown into hell itself.

But when I opened them again, what I saw was an estate of carved railings and jade steps.

It was the Grand Princess’s Mansion.

Inside, the place was deathly still. Apart from a few scattered footsteps, every sound seemed to have died.

On the steps of the innermost courtyard, someone was seated.

But it was not the Grand Princess. It was a young man.

He wore plain mourning robes, his eyes lowered as he studied the note in his hand, quiet and absorbed. His handsome face was pale and calm as water, reminding one of green bamboo after rain.

He looked up and asked me, “Is my twelfth imperial uncle with you?”

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I froze.

I couldn’t understand why the Grand Princess had suddenly been replaced by the Imperial Grandson.

I instantly grew wary and clamped my mouth shut.

A guard standing quietly to the side reminded me, “This is His Highness the Imperial Grandson.”

The Imperial Grandson?

Then he was also a member of the imperial family. If the message reached him, it would be the same.

I nodded again and again, explaining clearly how I had hidden Mu Yuchang over the past few days.

Only, I left out the part where Zhu Qingyun had threatened him when they first met.

But after the Imperial Grandson finished listening, he told me, neither hurried nor slow, that there was no secret passage anymore, and that Mu Yuchang must not act rashly.

As for that passage, after the Beidi discovered it, they had poured slurry inside and sealed it shut.

The sun was bright, light and shadow scattered everywhere, but I went cold from head to toe.

Every moment since the Beidi broke through the city had been unbearably difficult. Still, at least there had been a sliver of hope. I had thought that if I held on to Mu Yuchang, I would be able to find a way out.

But the secret passage had been blocked. The road was blocked too.

I didn’t even remember walking out of the Princess Residence in a daze.

By the time I came back to myself, I was already curled up in a ball, while Mu Yuchang anxiously asked if I had been bullied.

I shook my head and said I had gone to the Grand Princess’s Mansion.

Mu Yuchang’s eyes instantly became eager and bright.

But after he heard the whole story, they dulled again like dead fish eyes.

Now it was his turn to hang his head in despair.

But once I let out the frustration pent up inside me, I felt a little better. I grabbed him and asked, “Wasn’t the person who came out supposed to be the Grand Princess? How did it become the Imperial Grandson?”

“I don’t know. I suppose they wouldn’t let the Imperial Grandson come out, so he went in the princess’s place,” Mu Yuchang said irritably, tugging at his hair. “But how would I know why? How could I possibly know what happens inside the palace?”

“You’d better be careful. If the neighbors think you’re making too much noise, they’ll call the Beidi to come arrest you.”

Mu Yuchang was still a child in the end. The colder and sharper my words were, the more rebellious he became. He spread his legs and bolted for the door. “Then let them arrest me! I don’t want to live anyway!”

In the next instant, Zhu Qingyun hauled him back.

In truth, Zhu Qingyun was not much older than him, only six or seven years. But because Zhu Qingyun had once grabbed him by the throat, Mu Yuchang still couldn’t help being afraid of him even now.

Ah. A dignified imperial son, and now he had to live in constant terror just to keep his head on his shoulders.

No different from me.

The thought made me…

Still grit my teeth in hatred.

If I hadn’t slept so deeply that night, if news of the capital’s relocation had come just a little earlier…

Then right now, I should have been sitting in the courtyard with my family, enjoying the cool evening air, instead of standing here watching Zhu Qingyun tug Mu Yuchang by the ear and make him talk about matters inside the imperial palace.

Mu Yuchang was unconvinced, but he could only sullenly rub his ear and begin with his own story.