Cui Yunchu leaped off the daybed without even putting on her shoes. "Quick, take me to see him—where is he, is he being carried back, how many strokes did he get?"
"His Lordship hasn't returned yet." Nanny Zhang blocked Cui Yunchu's path. "Word is it wasn't too severe—just ten strokes."
Cui Yunchu's delight faltered for just a moment. "Only ten strokes of the board, huh."
She pursed her lips. "I thought it'd be something broken bones and tendons. The Emperor really does pity that old man."
Nanny Zhang smiled. "Even ten strokes is a solid whipping, isn't it? Clearly the gods are favoring you, miss, letting His Lordship taste some punishment."
Cui Yunchu grinned. "True enough."
Even if it wasn't severe, it was still worth celebrating.
"Nanny Zhang, go to the kitchen and tell them—anything that flies in the sky or walks on the ground, I want it all tonight. We're celebrating properly."
Nanny Zhang smiled and hurried off to do as she was told.
The mistress and her two servants spun and hopped about, giddy as could be.
By the doorway, a long dark shadow stretched across the floor. Xing'er looked over with a smile—then her smile froze solid.
Cui Yunchu was chirping and dancing, mimicking a eunuch's shrill voice: "Step forward! Seize Cui Qingyuan and give him ten strokes of the board—split his butt open for him, for daring to bully Yunchu!"
Then she and Nanny Zhang threw their heads back and howled with laughter. "Hahahahaha..."
"Mi-miss." Xing'er poked Cui Yunchu's arm.
Cui Yunchu stomped her feet with glee. "Xing'er, come here—you pretend to be Cui Qingyuan, and I'll beat you to death."
Xing'er's face was stiff as a board as Cui Yunchu spun her around, and she looked about to cry. "Miss..."
Cui Yunchu said, "Don't say a word—that expression of yours is the spitting image of the old man."
The shadow at the door grew longer and longer, until a pair of short boots stepped across the threshold, the robes flapping in the wind.
Xing'er twisted around and dropped to her knees with a thud. "Lord Prime Minister."
Cui Yunchu froze; her smile vanished in an instant. She too dropped to her knees with a thud, head bowed low. "Lord Prime Minister."
And then Nanny Zhang.
Cui Qingyuan's face was ashen, standing in the doorway, gazing down at the mistress and her two servants, and the mess scattered across the floor.
That was the blanket Cui Yunchu had grabbed to use as a eunuch's whisk.
The three of them trembled like leaves in a storm.
Cui Yunchu shot a glare at Nanny Zhang. She was convinced that woman was a jinx to her.
The dead silence in the room made her heart quake. "You... you're back. Just now, your daughter heard that you were punished at court and took some strokes—Xing'er, Nanny Zhang, and I were all grieving over it. Are you all right, Father?"
Cui Yunchu was spouting nonsense with wide-open eyes.
Xing'er and Nanny Zhang's lips twitched, marveling at their young mistress's talent for outright fabrication.
Cui Qingyuan said nothing, merely looking down at this daughter of his.
The smile on her face carried three parts nonchalance, two parts caution, four parts trepidation, and the last one part—sycophancy.
Utterly different from the girl who had stood in his study yesterday, demanding answers.
Yesterday, she had lashed out with grievance, with accusation. Today, it was as if those words had never been spoken.
Cui Qingyuan did not dwell on what had just happened. He said calmly, "You two, leave us."
Xing'er and Nanny Zhang rose immediately. Cui Yunchu also stood to follow.
"Yunchu." Cui Qingyuan's voice stopped her. She turned back with an awkward smile. "You didn't say my name, so I assumed you meant me too."
She halted in her tracks and called for Xing'er to bring tea.
In all her years, Cui Qingyuan had visited her courtyard fewer times than she had lived years. His sudden arrival today made her heart pound with unease.
Cui Qingyuan sat down at the table, his gaze never leaving Cui Yunchu, not once shifting away.
It made her spine run cold.
Finally, she couldn't bear it anymore. "I'm still not fully recovered from my illness—if you must punish me, could you not make me kneel in the ancestral hall?"
In the dead of winter, she was truly afraid of freezing to death.
Prime Minister Cui said nothing. From his sleeve, he drew out a small brocade box and handed it to Cui Yunchu.
She didn't move. She looked at the box, then raised her eyes to look at Cui Qingyuan.
After a long pause, she said, "When my cough gets better, I'll send it to Yunfeng."
Cui Qingyuan said, "It's not for her. It's for you."
Cui Yunchu froze, thinking her ears must be playing tricks on her.
She stared at the box, lips pressed tight, unable to utter a single word.
Was this because, after yesterday's words, his conscience had finally stirred, and this was his compensation?
"I don't want it," Cui Yunchu said in a small voice.
Things she had never had since childhood—suddenly having them now would only remind her of the past.
She didn't like it.
Especially when it came to her this way. It felt no different from begging on her knees.
Prime Minister Cui furrowed his brow. "It was always yours."
For a moment, neither father nor daughter spoke.
It wasn't just Cui Yunchu who felt uncomfortable; Cui Qingyuan did too.
After all, he had rarely spent time with her.
"Among young men," the Prime Minister suddenly asked, "do you have one you favor?"
Cui Yunchu blinked. The Prime Minister was still right in front of her—not a hallucination, and her ears were fine.
He was asking her if she had a man she favored?
Just the day before, for that very reason, he had been tearing into her.
"Should I say yes, or no?"
Prime Minister Cui frowned. "If you have one, you have one. If not, then not."
"If I do—does that mean any man is acceptable? And if I don't—who would you have chosen for me?"
Prime Minister Cui felt that speaking with Cui Yunchu was like playing politics in the court—evasive and slippery at every turn.
He disliked it deeply.
Because that kind of cunning reminded him all too much of her conniving, scheming mother.
His face showed impatience, and Cui Yunchu gave a faint smile. "Before you asked that question, did you already have the answer in your mind?"
Cui Qingyuan studied this daughter of his.
He did not care for her temperament, but her cleverness was beyond doubt.
"There is no future between you and that young man of the Shen family."
He could not accept his conditions, and Shen Xiabai was likewise incapable of laying aside all grievances and becoming family with the Cui-Tang house without demands.
As a father, he could not abandon Yunfeng, leaving her to drift and sink in the struggle for the succession, with no one to protect her—or even risk losing her life.
As a son, Shen Xiabai could not face the man he considered an enemy and call him father-in-law, forging a marital bond.
Cui Yunchu's lashes trembled. She said nothing.
She didn't quite understand the meaning behind Cui Qingyuan's sudden change of heart.
Cui Qingyuan continued, "Since you don't care for Lord Zhou, your father can choose others for you. The capital is full of fine young men."
"As long as his character is upright, I will allow it—anything you wish. Just so long as his surname is not Shen."
Cui Yunchu's lips curved into a faint, bitter smile.
One might think the man had killed his father, the way he was carrying on.
"Can you give me a reason?" Cui Yunchu looked him straight in the eye.
Shen Xiabai's position at court was weighty. If they could forge a marriage alliance and set aside old grudges, it would be a turning point for the Cui family—a tiger gaining wings.
Even between the Crown Prince and Prince An, Shen Xiabai might be the only one with the power to mediate.
Cui Yunchu wasn't actually wanting to marry him; she was just curious what reason Cui Qingyuan had for being so dead set against it.
Cui Qingyuan opened his mouth, as if about to say something, then seemed too ashamed to voice it.
After a moment, he pushed the brocade box forward a little, rose to his feet, and said, "Your elder brother will arrive in the capital the day after tomorrow. Since you have nothing to do at home, go meet him at the city gates—it'll be a chance to grow closer as siblings."
After saying this, he turned and left, but before he went, he tossed back one final line, "Before the marriage contract is finalized, if there's nothing pressing, don't go wandering about outside."
Cui Yunchu stood still without moving.
Sibling affection? She and Cui Yunli seemed to have none.
What was the reason he wouldn't say aloud? That he was afraid she'd be wronged, afraid Shen Xiabai would make things difficult for her over the grudges between their two families?
Cui Yunchu suddenly laughed.
She laughed at her own wishful thinking. If she could be traded for the support of the Shen family, he would push her out the door without a second's hesitation.
After all, what losing an enemy like the Shen family meant to Cui Tang, even she—a young woman who never meddled in court affairs—understood all too clearly.
