chapter 3

I insisted on escorting my parents and sister out.

My parents were furious.

My sister was close to tears.

Lost in thought, I walked with my head down and collided with Zhao Ye.

I stepped back.

He rubbed his chest.

I hurriedly bowed.

The gatekeeper came running and explained who my family were.

“I was just seeing them out,” I said.

“Let them stay,” Zhao Ye said. “It’s livelier with more people. This household hasn’t been so lively in a long time.”

Before I could answer, my parents knelt to thank him.

My sister lifted her face and smiled sweetly. “Thank you, Brother-in-law.”

His lips moved slightly, but he did not correct her.

My throat tightened. I was deeply uneasy.

They did not know that everyone here called me Miss Li. No one called me a prince’s consort or treated me as mistress of the household. Zhao Ye and I were not truly husband and wife.

Hearing my sister call him her brother-in-law frightened me.

I had a bitter argument with my parents.

“Three days. You can stay for three days at most. Then you must ask to leave.”

“Li Aqiao, how can you be so heartless? You have a comfortable life right here, yet you insist on hardship. You’re afraid your sister will steal his favor. But what favor do you have to lose?”

Cruel words from family hurt most.

Every one struck where I was most vulnerable.

I looked at my sister.

“Is that what you think, too?”

She hesitated, blinking her large eyes.

“I’ll listen to Mother and Father.”

I gave a bitter laugh.

She had been six when I left home, a sweet, innocent little girl.

She used to listen to everything I said. When the carriage took me away to the palace, she ran after it until Mother caught her. She cried as though her heart were breaking.

I remembered.

I had imagined the young woman she would become: lively, bright, and clever.

Never this mixture of ignorance and calculation.

I swallowed my anger and spoke slowly, making every word clear.

“You should listen to the one person in this room who has actually seen the world outside. Don’t just repeat whatever you hear. If Mother and Father were so farsighted, they would have made something of the money I sent home, instead of bringing you here as refugees.”

Furious at my defiance, Father raised his hand to strike me as he had when I was little.

I caught his wrist.

My voice sharpened.

“Look. Even you don’t treat me as a prince’s consort, yet you think my supposed position will let you stay here. Other people aren’t fools.”

“Let me make this plain. That marriage decree was a cruel joke. The Fifth Prince has never had any affection for me. Nothing good will come of staying.”

“If you still want me as your daughter, leave in three days. I will leave this place, too. Then we may still have a chance to be together.”

“Otherwise… this will end badly.”

I did not want our reunion to become a final parting, as though we had never found each other at all.

I walked away in anger.

Father’s furious voice followed me.

“Such defiance! You couldn’t hold the Fifth Prince’s heart, that’s all. Arao won’t be like you.”

I turned and looked at him quietly.

I had never forgotten how he and Mother wept when I was chosen as a palace maid and the carriage took me away. Remembering it had always made my heart ache.

Now I understood that some family members were best kept in dreams. Meeting them in waking life could turn those dreams into nightmares.