“Uncle, what do you think—do we still have a chance of winning now?” the Crown Prince asked.
Prime Minister Cui pressed his lips together and said nothing.
“It is only today that I have come to realize how highly Yunfeng is regarded in your heart.”
With that, the Crown Prince turned and left for the Empress’s palace. These past days, the Emperor, dissatisfied with him, had been finding fault with the Empress as well. Though the Crown Prince harbored some resentment toward his mother, in the end—she was his own flesh and blood.
Prime Minister Cui stood at the palace gate, brows furrowed.
Cui Yunli had already returned to the capital, yet the Emperor had probed him time and again and only offered idle posts. If he missed this opportunity, then the move that was Cui Yunli would be wasted entirely.
The Crown Prince’s faction was on edge these days, so it was no wonder he was so anxious.
“Not an easy position, is it—caught between two sons-in-law?” A voice suddenly came from behind.
Prime Minister Cui turned and met Shen Xiabai’s faintly smiling face. He stood with his hands behind his back, eyes slightly narrowed under the sunlight, a hidden depth running through them.
“For you, Prime Minister Cui—which matters more: the family, or your legitimate daughter?”
He fixed his gaze on the Prime Minister. “I am very curious—deep in your heart, have you ever felt even a sliver of guilt toward her, or the reluctance of a father?”
“It is precisely because I am her father that I will not allow her to have anything to do with you.” The Prime Minister’s expression turned grim.
Shen Xiabai lowered his eyes, and only after a long moment said, “I very much dislike discussing her in this manner. I do not wish for her fate to become a bargaining chip in the games of our officialdom.”
He stepped closer and continued, “Therefore, I am willing to retreat one more step. As long as you agree, no matter how the situation shifts in the future, I will ensure the Princess of An’s safety for all her days.”
He looked up at the blinding sunlight and added, “You may choose not to trust me. You may not cherish her, may disdain her, may not like her—but you ought to trust her character. She would never abandon her sisters to life or death.”
Prime Minister Cui said, “Lord Shen speaks so boldly. What guarantees do you have that you can walk away from this battle for succession unscathed? And what right do you have to claim you can protect my daughter?”
“Because across the entire court, besides me, no one would dare speak with such audacity.”
The Prime Minister fell silent.
Shen Xiabai had not said a single wrong word—if even he could not accomplish something in this court, then no one else possibly could.
Shen Xiabai’s hand clenched inside his sleeve, his lips slightly white as he bowed his head a little. “All I ask is that you step out of court and give A Chu to me in marriage. Then every grudge between me and the Cui family—I shall let them all go.”
“I will never hand my daughter’s life over to anyone, least of all you.” With that, the Prime Minister turned and climbed onto his carriage, ordering the driver to return to the residence.
Shen Xiabai stood at the palace gate, the wind lifting his robes. He stared at Cui Qingyuan’s departing carriage for a long while, his face dark and grim.
“Master,” Yu Feng carefully began, “news has come from the residence. The Dowager requests you return immediately—says Princess Xiao Lan has come to the house.”
Shen Xiabai frowned slightly, then turned to ask Yu Feng, “Has her hairpin been recovered?”
Yu Feng nodded quickly. “It has been recovered, and the culprit has been handed to the authorities. The item is in your study.”
Inside the Shen estate, silence hung heavy. Princess Xiao Lan, dressed in her palace attire, sat in the seat of honor, while a maidservant respectfully offered her tea.
Dowager Shen sat below her, regarding her with a slightly raised chin.
“My return to the capital was greatly aided by Lord Shen. Today, I have come to offer my thanks—there is no need to be alarmed, Dowager Shen.”
The Dowager gave a smile. Alarmed? Not in the slightest. With her son’s position, even the Empress showed him some respect. A single princess was hardly enough to frighten her.
Xiao Lan smiled, offering praise. “Lord Shen is handsome in appearance, brimming with talent, and accomplished in his career. Dowager Shen is truly fortunate indeed.”
“The princess flatters me. Anything Xiabai has done has been merely in the line of duty.”
If you want to thank him, then go thank him at the palace, she thought. What was the point of coming to her house?
Xiao Lan said, “There are reasons that you do not know, Dowager Shen. The one I owe my thanks to is most certainly Lord Shen.”
“…”
Oh.
The Dowager fell silent, but she kept glancing toward the window, clearly growing impatient.
She despised this sort of needless trouble more than anything—good-for-nothing wretch. He had taken her screen, brought back no wife, and instead had lured some stray woman to add frustration to her golden years. And now, at her age, she had to kneel and greet people again.
That was why she disliked going to the palace. Who would have thought she would have to kowtow in her own home as well?
Xiao Lan barely stopped speaking—softly, without much pretense of superiority, yet in an intangible way she made sure no one forgot that she was a princess.
“I have heard that when Dowager Shen was young, you lost your husband and raised Lord Shen all alone. Given how accomplished he is today, one can see that Dowager Shen is quite extraordinary indeed.”
“…”
The Dowager smiled—a strained, awkward smile.
She did not hear the words as praise so much as mockery over her husband’s early death.
“A woman leading the family and raising a son—surely that was no easy task. Dowager Shen is truly remarkable.”
“Yes, yes.” The Dowager smiled and humored her, her face stiff from the effort, then said to the attendant at her side, “What are you staring at? Go at once and see whether Xiabai has returned.”
The attendant hurried out.
Fortunately, not long after, Shen Zilan also came home from the government office. After greeting the princess, he sat down beside the Dowager, listening as she went on—“Lord Shen this, Lord Shen that.”
The longer he listened, the more tightly Shen Zilan’s brows drew together, and his eyes betrayed open hostility.
Fortunately, before long, the attendant returned to report that Shen Xiabai had come back.
The tension that had gathered in the Dowager’s chest evaporated in an instant, and she hastily said, “Where is he? The princess has been waiting for him for quite a while—why has he not arrived yet?”
Princess Xiao Lan took a sip of tea, sitting proper and graceful.
But the one who entered was Yu Feng. He bowed first, then said, “Your Highness, my master says that the Dowager’s health is frail and she cannot endure sitting through long pleasantries. He invites you to move to the front courtyard.”
Xiao Lan’s smile froze for a moment, then she rose and said to the Dowager, “Then I have been a bother. Rest well, Dowager Shen. I shall take my leave.”
“Princess, take care.”
As soon as she was gone, Shen Zilan rose immediately to follow, but the Dowager grabbed him. “Where do you think you are going?”
“Grandmother, can you not see it? Uncle and that princess—there is clearly something going on. I want to see for myself, and if it is true, then I will…”
“You will what?” The Dowager frowned.
“I will ask for Eldest Miss Cui’s hand in marriage.” He had believed that his uncle was a gentleman of honor, sincerely devoted to Eldest Miss Cui and would treat her well—as he had said to him that night. He had thought that if the two truly loved each other, he would endure the pain and let them be. But to think that his uncle could be so dissolute and wandering in his affections, entangling himself with another so quickly…
The Dowager was first shocked, then furious, slapping him again and again. “You wretch who turns against heaven itself! You ungrateful creature, daring to covet your own aunt! You want to drive me to an early grave!”
Yet Shen Zilan still managed to slip out from under the Dowager’s blows and head toward the front courtyard.
At the waterside pavilion in the front courtyard, from a distance, Xiao Lan and Shen Xiabai stood side by side, both gazing at the fish swimming to and fro in the lake.
Xiao Lan watched with great curiosity. “I’ve never seen fish like these before.”
Shen Xiabai’s voice was cold and flat. “The colors on them were dyed by my order when my former fiancée came to call. I had it done to amuse her. Pray forgive the spectacle, Princess.”
Xiao Lan’s smile faltered slightly. “I had not heard that you were betrothed, Lord Shen.”
“We fell in love and pledged ourselves to each other in secret. Long ago, we swore before the Buddha that in this life, we would marry only each other,” Shen Xiabai said, glancing sidelong at Xiao Lan before continuing. “Should either of us break that vow and wed another, then may her husband die young, and my wife perish of illness—neither of us allowed a good end.”
“…”
For a long moment, Xiao Lan could not find her voice.
She had heard of oath-breakers being struck by lightning, but never of vows that promised the death of one’s spouse. At least they were both rather fond of their own lives.
She gave a soft laugh. “I never took you for a man who enjoyed jokes, Lord Shen.”
“I never joke.” Shen Xiabai’s face remained wooden and expressionless.
“To speak such reckless words before the Buddha—surely that’s ill-advised. The Buddha only blesses those with a sincere heart, and a man as strange as you, Lord Shen, will never have his words answered.” Xiao Lan kept smiling.
“I have never placed my faith in the divine, either.” Shen Xiabai raised an eyebrow. “I said it for her alone. If she dares, then I dare to make her husband die young.”
“…”
“Do you find my fish pretty, Princess?”
Xiao Lan’s throat moved as she swallowed. She suddenly felt that beneath Shen Xiabai’s placid exterior lurked a wolf baring its fangs—restless and menacing.
He reminded her, somehow, of her second nephew.
“Quite… quite lovely.”
“Good. Then I’m glad—my betrothed adored them as well. The last maid who called my fish ugly was drowned just the other day.”
!!!
“…”
“The weather’s been cold these past days, so we haven’t had time to fish the body out. If you wait a little longer, Princess, you might just see her float up.”
Xiao Lan was no ordinary woman—four years spent at Anshan Temple had tempered her into something far stronger than most. Yet facing Shen Xiabai’s sinister words and faint smile, she felt her scalp prickle and a chill wind creep down her spine.
“Ah, by the way—I heard Her Majesty the Dowager kept you in the palace. What brings you out of the palace today, Princess?”
“I… I have established my own residence outside the palace now. My mother intends to choose a husband for me.”
Shen Xiabai said, “Then I offer you my congratulations, Princess.”
“I have matters to attend to, so I shall take my leave. If you like the fish, you are welcome to visit them anytime.”
Xiao Lan now thought the fish were hideous and unsettling, but she dared not say so.
Who in their right mind dyes fish in the dead of winter? The man was simply mad!
