"Big Sister is the one and only best girl in the world." Cui Yunfeng hugged her around the waist.
Cui Yunchu tried to shake off the gloom in her heart. "Is that so? If she's that wonderful, then why don't you take me to the Prince An's treasury for a look? Let me broaden my horizons, how about it?"
"What's that worth? Come on, I'll take you." Like a nouveau riche showing off, Cui Yunfeng pulled Cui Yunchu along to witness her mountain of gold and silver.
...
Half an hour later, Prince An returned from court.
As the carriage stopped at the mansion gate, the steward immediately came forward to greet him.
"Where is the Princess?" Prince An climbed the steps in two or three strides, like a child rushing home to find his mother, his brows and eyes wearing an unprecedented joy.
In the Prince An Mansion, there was finally a lively atmosphere, no longer just a cold, lifeless estate.
"Your Highness, after the Princess woke up, she first ordered the servants to tidy up your study. Not long after, Miss Cui the Elder came to visit. Right now, they're chatting together."
Hearing that Cui Yunchu had arrived, Xiao Yi slowed his pace slightly.
Lifting his gaze, he saw the two young ladies walking slowly through the arched flowering gate. He stopped, his eyes first falling on Cui Yunfeng, then shifting to Cui Yunchu, whose face was half-hidden.
She had things tucked under her arm and more clutched in her hands, so loaded down she could barely bend at the waist to greet him.
"Brother-in-law, you're back."
"Mm." Prince An's gaze was indifferent. "Miss Cui the Elder, here to stock up?"
Cui Yunchu's eyes crinkled with laughter. "Yunfeng insisted—she made me take these. It would be impolite to refuse, truly impolite."
"..."
"Don't call her Miss Cui the Elder. She's my Big Sister," Cui Yunfeng said.
Xiao Yi pressed his lips together. The thought of calling Cui Yunchu "Big Sister" really didn't come easily.
Cui Yunchu laughed. "No matter. It's getting late, so I won't disturb you newlyweds any longer. Farewell, Yunfeng. I'll come see you again when I have time."
Cui Yunfeng nodded reluctantly. "Good, I'll be waiting for you, Big Sister. You must come, alright?"
Cui Yunchu was carrying so much that even standing made her sway. "Brother-in-law, could you move aside a bit? I can't hold this much longer."
Xiao Yi's eyelid twitched. Expressionless, he stepped to the side.
Cui Yunchu and Xing'er, who was carrying something clamped between her teeth, slowly shuffled away.
Cui Yunfeng called out, "Big Sister, watch your step! Don't fall!"
The entire staff of the Prince An Mansion stood speechless.
Cui Yunchu watched as Cui Yunchu climbed onto the carriage, and her eyes started to redden. Xiao Yi said, "Don't be sad. With Yunfeng's hospitality like this, she's sure to come often."
If he wasn't mistaken, what the maid had between her teeth was a set of blue-and-white porcelain tea ware.
He turned to the steward and said, "Write it all down."
Later, he would get it all back from the one in the prison cell.
Cui Yunfeng's mind was entirely on Cui Yunchu; she hadn't even caught what Xiao Yi had said.
"I'm off now." Cui Yunchu poked her head out of the carriage, which was packed full of her haul, and waved at Cui Yunfeng.
Cui Yunfeng's eyes were still red. "Big Sister, you really must come often."
Cui Yunchu replied, "Alright, I'll come tomorrow—"
"Miss Cui the Elder," Xiao Yi cut her off, "the weather is turning cold. The prison is damp and chilly—don't you want to go visit an old acquaintance?"
Xiao Yi's words were like a magic trick, freezing the smile on Cui Yunchu's face.
The atmosphere fell into a heavy silence. Cui Yunfeng spoke up, "What was Big Sister about to say? Is she coming to see me again tomorrow?"
"No," Xiao Yi said, putting an arm around her waist to guide her back inside. "You misheard. She's going to be very busy from now on. She won't have time to come."
If she still had the heart to go gallivanting around, then she truly had a heart of stone.
Xiao Yi was right. The emotions that Cui Yunchu had struggled to suppress over the past few days came flooding back in an instant. She felt like a corpse drained of its life force by some demon, all her energy suddenly gone.
She wanted to sleep, desperately wanted to, to curl up in her garden and never leave the house.
"Xing'er, tell the driver to change course and head to Wangyue Tower to buy some food."
...
The steward of Prince An Mansion had scurried straight to the treasury as soon as Cui Yunchu left. When he saw the corner of the treasury that had been stripped bare, his heart ached with every spasm.
For years, the treasury had only ever grown; this was the first time it had suffered such a devastating loss.
After much deliberation, he couldn't help but go to the study.
When Eunuch Liu reported his arrival, Xiao Yi was standing in a sea of pink, lost in thought. His eyes met no other color in sight, making his head spin.
It looked as though his study had been thrown into a pink dye vat and fished back out again.
Xiao Yi glanced back at Eunuch Liu. "Let him in."
The moment the steward entered the study, the words he had prepared got stuck in his throat.
So this was what the Princess had done when she "tidied up" the Prince's study.
Pink gauze curtains drifted in the breeze coming through the latticed window, accompanied by a faint tinkling sound.
All three of them—master, eunuch, and steward—looked up at the same time. Their gaze landed on a string of wind chimes hanging from the ceiling beam.
Very pink.
Very... Yunfeng.
The steward's face went pale. "Your Highness, forgive me. This old servant failed in his duty. I'll have this all changed back immediately."
"No need." Xiao Yi's hand stroked the desk draped in pink satin.
He even felt that the very air was faintly infused with her presence and scent.
"What do you want?"
The steward then recounted what had happened in the treasury. "Your Highness, if Miss Cui the Elder comes a few more times... I'm afraid..."
The Prince An Mansion would be completely emptied.
His Princess was so naive and innocent, after all.
If necessary, next time they should find some excuse to keep Miss Cui the Elder from entering the mansion.
Xiao Yi shot him a cold glare. "Are you tired of being steward? Do you want to see His Highness sleeping on the streets?"
If they shut Cui Yunchu out, with her temper, she'd likely convince Yunfeng to sue for divorce.
The room fell silent. Eunuch Liu's mouth twitched. "Your Highness, this old servant thinks that what Lord Shen said was very true."
"Your first priority now should be to make sure the Princess's heart belongs entirely to you—that's what matters most."
Xiao Yi was silent for a long moment. Finally, he said, "Don't interfere. Whatever the Princess gives away, I will get back."
A sly smile tugged at his lips, his eyes gleaming with amusement.
...
Cui Yunchu stood outside the gates of the Dali Temple, carrying her food box from Wangyue Tower, pacing back and forth in hesitation.
Beside her, Xing'er was so bored she was nodding off. "Miss, are we going in or not? If we wait any longer, it'll be dark."
Cui Yunchu seemed to have finally made up her mind. She lifted the food box and walked toward the Dali Temple entrance.
When she stated her purpose, the guard at the gate readily let her in, leaving her a little stunned. All the excuses she had prepared were completely unnecessary.
The Dali Temple was that easy to enter?
Cui Yunchu walked inside alone, carrying the food box.
The prison was just as Xiao Yi had said—cold, dark, and so pitch-black in some places that you couldn't see your hand in front of your face. But from the moment she appeared, she could feel dozens of eyes fixed on her.
An icy chill crept up from the soles of her feet.
Cui Yunchu forced herself to go deeper, not entirely sure why she had come here on a whim because of one remark from Prince An.
Perhaps it was because of what Yunfeng had said about getting married, or perhaps it was because those who loved her were so few.
"This way for Lord Shen," a gruff voice suddenly barked, startling Cui Yunchu.
She followed the man through a maze of twists and turns, finally stopping at a cell door. There, she fell utterly silent, still and staring at the man sitting cross-legged inside, his head bowed as he read something by lamplight.
The white prison robe was very clean. Worn on him, it did not betray the slightest hint of destitution, no different from the first glance in that small courtyard at the Ministry of Justice back then.
The man seemed not to notice her arrival, still flipping through sheets of rice paper, reading with earnest focus, his profile sharp and frigid.
Cui Yunchu’s gaze fell upon the rice paper in his hands; it looked somewhat familiar.
She knew he knew she had come.
After an unknowable stretch of time, the man slowly raised his head. The candlelight illuminated his expressionless face, and his voice was equally cold. “It’s dark in the prison. Why have you come?”
“I am no longer afraid of the dark,” Cui Yunchu said.
Shen Xiabai stared fixedly at her. After a moment, he smiled—almost imperceptibly.
“What are you looking at?”
Shen Xiabai lowered his eyes and continued flipping through the papers. “Prince An sent them over to pass the time.”
Cui Yunchu doubted that Xiao Yi, that scoundrel, would have such good intentions.
But Shen Xiabai read them very seriously, the cold and somber air around him growing heavier.
At this moment, sending these things—Xiao Yi was indeed quite thoughtful.
Shen Xiabai owed him a word: “Thank you!!”
He curled his lips slightly, gathered the papers he had read into an envelope, and tossed them aside.
Cui Yunchu stood there in silence, clutching the food box in her hands tightly.
Shen Xiabai said, “Finally, a word of truth from your lips.”
“What?” Cui Yunchu asked.
Shen Xiabai leaned against the wall, his wrist resting on a bent knee, and did not answer.
In the garden of Prince An’s mansion, he had heard her speak of when she was eight years old.
That feeling was beyond description—like a steel needle suddenly stabbing deep into the heart, a surging pain that numbed the soul and chilled the fingertips.
And then came the last shred of hope.
He had thought there was never a word of truth from her mouth; she was born to lie. Perhaps she was deceiving him again.
But Gu Xuan was dead. At that moment, he knew: she had not lied. This time, she had spoken the truth.
Yet for the first time, he desperately wished she had spoken a falsehood.
At that moment, he felt nothing else—only that suppressed agony, yet again, surging densely like a tide.
“A liar turned into a demon of trickery,” he said, glancing sideways at Cui Yunchu, the corners of his eyes flushed an unnatural red.
Cui Yunchu gripped the food box so tightly that the veins on her hands bulged. Her lips were locked tight, a faint taste of blood flooding her mouth.
Shen Xiabai averted his gaze, lowered his head, and stared at the thick stack of letters on the floor.
He had lost.
He had no admiration for those deeply scheming politicians—only for her. How could political stratagem ever rival the brilliance of her manipulation of the human heart?
In the end, it was the Cui family who had the ultimate trump card.
