Wei Xichen returned to the posthouse and fell back into a coma, his jade-like face pale and colorless.
Illness struck like a collapsing mountain. Even if it stemmed from a disease of the heart, without the medicine to cure that heart, he couldn’t treat the root cause.
The old eunuch saw it all and sighed heavily, but he didn’t dare let the crown prince hear. He walked alone into the posthouse courtyard, his face etched with worry.
“Meow~”
A cat’s meow suddenly rang out, especially clear in the quiet night.
The posthouse entrance was lit by lanterns, bright as day. The old eunuch followed the sound to the green plum tree in the courtyard and saw a small tabby cat perched on a branch.
“Where did this cat come from?”
A posthouse worker ran over and shook his head. “It must have slipped in from outside. I’ll toss it out right now.”
“Hurry, hurry.”
Having learned from Qi Bao’s injury, the old eunuch had no desire to see any more stray cats and dogs in the courtyard.
“Bring it inside.”
But before the worker could act, a clear yet slightly hoarse voice came from the second-floor veranda.
Wei Xichen, draped in a crane cloak, stood at the railing and looked down at the little tabby on the green plum tree. It was skinny and small; if thrown into the street, it would likely starve to death.
Fu Zhongcai grabbed the hissing tabby and scurried up to the second-floor veranda. “Your Highness, please return to your room to avoid catching a chill.”
The summer night breeze was gentle and soothing, but for someone weakened by illness and fever, it was too much.
Wei Xichen took the little tabby into the crook of his arm and scratched its head. “Fetch some goat’s milk.”
Though the little one was small, its spirit was fierce, hissing repeatedly and making Wei Xichen chuckle.
An enchanting figure involuntarily appeared before his eyes. Back when they had known each other as children, she had been just like this—proud and innocently spoiled.
Since it was found in the green plum tree, he would call it “Niannian.”
Whether from selfish motives or a sudden inspiration, their meeting at this exact moment felt fated to Wei Xichen. He felt a connection with this little cat.
He wiped the milk foam from the mouth of the tabby that had drunk the goat’s milk, patted out its hiccups, and let the kitten burrow into his sleeve, then crawl out through the collar from the back.
His mood lightened considerably with the foundling cat.
He reclined in a chaise lounge, quietly gazing at the bright moon outside the window, accompanied by the little tabby that had fallen asleep on his lap at some point.
The next day, before dawn, Qi Bao scratched relentlessly at the door crack, howling awoo awoo nonstop.
Jiang Yinyue stood at the door, looking at it helplessly.
Before Wei Qin left for his shift, Jiang Yinyue hesitated and said, “If you’re free after your shift…”
“Alright.”
She cut herself off, afraid he would overthink it, while he agreed calmly, not wanting to put her in a difficult spot.
Wei Qin took the stuffed toy that Qi Bao had brought over, bounced it in his hand as a signal, and Qi Bao grinned widely.
At dusk, Wei Qin took Qi Bao to the posthouse. As soon as they entered, Qi Bao dashed straight up to the second floor like it owned the place.
The guards did nothing to stop it.
Wei Qin, however, had to wait downstairs for an attendant. Only after a good while was he led to the small room on the second floor.
“This official pays respects to Your Highness.”
“No need for formalities.”
As a subject, naturally inquired after the heir apparent’s health. “How is Your Highness recovering?”
“Much better.”
Wei Xichen, who had been watching Qi Bao sniff the little tabby cat, smiled faintly. His mild demeanor revealed the nobility of his high station.
From the moment Wei Qin appeared, he hadn’t spared him a single extra glance, let alone any special treatment.
Fu Zhongcai saw it clearly from the side. He hadn’t understood before, but now he did—Your Highness didn’t treat other promising new officials with this attitude.
If he were eager for talent, it wouldn’t be like this…
Qi Bao stared at the little tabby, which arched its back in fear. Qi Bao stuck out its butt and stretched forward, only to get clocked on the head by the tabby’s shadow fist.
The little tabby leaped onto Wei Xichen’s shoulder, extremely vigilant.
Qi Bao stared at its owner as he stood up and lifted the little tabby to a height it couldn’t reach. When Wei Xichen bent down to pet its head, it suddenly ran back to Wei Qin’s side and pressed against his leg.
It felt wronged.
Wei Xichen hurried over to Qi Bao to pick it up, but the dog dodged away with its head hanging low.
Wei Qin said nothing. On the way back, he bought Qi Bao plenty of treats.
When Jiang Yinyue heard about it, she scoffed. “That’s for the best. No need to bring Qi Bao to see him anymore.”
Favoring the new and tiring of the old.
Jiang Yinyue held Qi Bao as they sat in the courtyard, watching the bright moon in the sky together.
She had once thought the crown prince was that moon itself, but now he was just a illusory reflection in water, shattering at a touch.
In the posthouse, Wei Xichen paused his brush while handling official documents despite his illness. Thinking of Qi Bao with its head hanging low, a pang of sourness tugged at his heart.
Like owner, like pet—that saying became vividly real in that moment.
When Jiang Yinyue had seen Yan Zhuyu by his side back then, her reaction had been the same.
The little tabby jumped onto the table and rubbed its head against the back of his hand.
Wei Xichen cupped it in his hands and held it under the lamp for a close look. It lacked Yan Zhuyu’s weak flattery; it resembled the stubborn and proud Jiang Yinyue instead.
If not for that, he wouldn’t have felt moved to compassion.
Fu Zhongcai’s familiar hurried footsteps sounded outside the door. Wei Xichen turned his head and furrowed his feathered jade brows.
“Your Highness, the, the Eldest Princess is here!”
A slender hand tipped with dankou polish tossed aside a Song brocade cloak. As the door opened, she covered her mouth with an orchid finger and giggled. “Visiting so suddenly—Your Highness won’t blame This Princess for being presumptuous, will you?”
“Aunt…”
The visitor wore an oil-green long skirt that accentuated her voluptuous figure. Past thirty and a half, she showed no signs of age.
“Guard Commander Zheng offended Your Highness, so This Princess came personally to Yangzhou to apologize. Sincere enough, right?”
Wei Xichen stepped forward and naturally offered his hand, while shooting a deep glance at the personal guard by her side. “This prince was worried Aunt would blame me instead.”
“How could I? A pretty boy blinded by greed and lust—how could he have the ability to ruin the relationship between us aunt and nephew?” The court secrets no outsider dared voice were laid bare before the Eldest Princess. She took the crown prince’s wrist and sauntered gracefully into the small room, glancing at the tabby cat on the table. “Your Highness really likes these cats and dogs, doesn’t he? What do you call it?”
“Niannian.”
The Eldest Princess arched her slender brows and smiled meaningfully.
News of His Majesty’s imperial sister’s personal visit to Yangzhou spread like wildfire. Not only the Yangzhou prefect but even Old Princess Dowager Xu called personally.
The Eldest Princess did not stay at the posthouse but chose the famously lavish Salt Merchant’s Private Estate in the city.
The vast estate teemed with accompanying guards, yet only one person could approach this princess who had yet to marry and had no intention of doing so.
“Huo Yi, summon Wei Qin to see This Princess.”
By the pond blooming with daylilies, the Eldest Princess spoke slowly.
The handsome and tall personal guard Huo Yi bowed and withdrew, mounting a horse to head for the Salt Transport Office.
Wei Qin, not yet off his shift, showed no panic upon hearing the Eldest Princess’s summons—unlike Prefect Lin Yu when he learned of her arrival in Yangzhou. He remained as calm as ever.
“Please wait a moment.”
Huo Yi enunciated each word: “Transport Judge Wei, the Eldest Princess requests your presence.”
Huo Yi sat astride a fine steed, clad in fitted robes and brocade boots, exuding the cold arrogance of a palace guard.
Though his rank was below Guard Commander Zheng’s, he had recently gained exclusive favor and carried some arrogance with it.
Wei Qin finished organizing his documents and unhurriedly walked to the older horse that Huo Yi had brought.
The two rode one after the other to the estate. Huo Yi’s thoroughbred far outclassed Wei Qin’s old mount in bloodline, yet he couldn’t pull ahead. He couldn’t help turning back to look at the poor scholar in his memory, only to find Wei Qin staring back at him.
They arrived at the pond blooming with daylilies. Huo Yi stood behind the Eldest Princess, hand on the sword at his waist.
The Eldest Princess reclined on an embroidered stool carved from gold-threaded nanmu wood. After Wei Qin bowed in greeting, she smiled and invited him to sit.
“It’s been months, Transport Judge Wei—you’ve grown even more handsome.”
Huo Yi gripped his sword hilt tightly.
The Eldest Princess patted the man’s hand without looking away to reassure him, then turned back to the seated Wei Qin with a deeper smile. “The last letter Guard Commander Zheng sent This Princess mentioned you. He said you knew of This Princess and his romantic affair. How did you come to know of it, Transport Judge Wei?”
“Guard Commander Zheng bore a grudge against this official in life. Given his despicable nature, he was the type to fabricate lies and borrow a knife to kill.”
“So you’re saying he slandered you, and you truly know nothing of the matter.”
“Exactly.”
The Eldest Princess smiled without comment. With Guard Commander Zheng dead and Wei Qin denying it outright, there was no proof either way.
Fine.
After the unappetizing “appetizer,” the Eldest Princess wasted no more time on pleasantries. “Transport Judge Wei, you willingly married into the Jiang Clan for profit, didn’t you? Name your price. How much silver will it take for you to divorce that Jiang girl?”
At her words, Huo Yi breathed a sigh of relief. He had thought the Eldest Princess set this trap for Wei Qin’s looks.
Wei Qin replied coolly, “Not even for a thousand gold.”
“What about a cabinet grand secretary position?”
“This official can strive for it himself.”
As a baguwen second place, entering the cabinet was within reach.
The Eldest Princess pulled out a stack of banknotes and tossed them into the air. “Ten thousand taels.”
“Twenty thousand taels.”
“One hundred thousand taels.”
The fluttering banknotes fell like goose-feather snow around Wei Qin.
The Eldest Princess crossed one leg and toyed with the enamel guard on her pinky, her tone turning as cold as a plummeting temperature. “If not for Jiang Song’s sake, This Princess would never let a poor scholar like you pluck the royal family’s green plums. Even if the green plums rot on the branch, they wouldn’t be yours. Huo Yi, see him out.”
What was the Eldest Princess? A passerby toying with emotions amid seas of love and hate.
Last night, through Fu Zhongcai, she learned that the crown prince still pined for Jiang Yinyue. Pining? It was mere unwillingness. Bottled up without sharing, it became a heart ailment. If she could persuade Wei Qin to initiate the divorce and break up the happy couple, would the crown prince still feel unwilling?
“The heart aches most when desire goes unfulfilled. A single word—jealousy—explains it all.”
This Wei Qin earned her respect.
With the moon high in the sky, Jiang Yinyue accompanied her two young sisters-in-law in the back courtyard to enjoy the cool air when she heard a burst of hoofbeats. She ran to the front gate and saw Wei Qin returning on an unfamiliar horse, followed by a handsome man at an angle behind.
Jiang Yinyue couldn’t help giving the man a few extra glances, sensing his intense arrogance.
Arrogant about what?
She ran to Wei Qin and silently questioned him.
Wei Qin shook his head, returned the horse to Huo Yi, and watched him leave.
Back in the East Wing Room, after hearing Wei Qin’s account of the day’s events, Jiang Yinyue—who had been hesitating whether to pay respects to the Eldest Princess—sat before her dressing table. She stared at the pearl hairpins in her jewelry box, her reflected brows and eyes in the bronze mirror dark and foreboding.
“Did you notice? That Huo Yi looks like Father.”
Wei Qin stepped behind Jiang Yinyue and covered her eyes in the mirror. “You saw wrong. How can a pretty boy who serves with his looks compare to your father-in-law?”
The bronze mirror reflected the woman’s smiling face, her lips red and teeth white.
“True enough.”
But he still looked similar. Jiang Yinyue thought of Guard Commander Zheng, whose face shape somewhat resembled her father’s, and suddenly realized something.
Wei Qin’s eyes in the bronze mirror held understanding.
A few days later, Huo Yi, riding out in fine style, was blocked by Jiang Yinyue and Cui Shihan.
Jiang Yinyue had enlisted the guards from the County Princess Mansion to stake out outside the estate where the Eldest Princess was staying, waiting to intercept this Huo Yi.
“A word, if you please.”
Huo Yi sat tall on his horse, his arrogance making him unpleasant to look at.
Cui Shihan even wanted to whip him right there in the street.
Serving with his looks—what was there to be arrogant about? Fox borrowing the tiger’s might?
Arriving at a smoky, sordid tile theater, Jiang Yinyue got straight to the point. “Guard Huo, willing to serve the Eldest Princess forever—what you want most is profit, right? Name your price. How many silver taels to cut ties with the Eldest Princess completely?”
Huo Yi had never imagined that the two young ladies would bring him to such a noisy, chaotic place, far from refined elegance. But it suited their purpose.
A deal that reeked of money.
Tempting him to stay away from the Eldest Princess was, first, to get even with Wei Qin eye for an eye, and second, to humiliate the Eldest Princess.
A male favorite rejecting the Eldest Princess’s favor was no different from a servant insulting his master.
Jiang Yinyue was too lazy to say more. She grabbed a handful of banknotes and flung them at him.
“Ten thousand taels, twenty thousand taels, a hundred thousand taels.”
Miss Jiang the eldest was generous, not even blinking.
Cui Shihan fanned the flames from the side. “The imperial family is the most heartless. Favor lasts but a snap of the fingers. Banknotes are the most reliable. Relying on your salary and the Eldest Princess’s rewards—when would you ever scrape together a real fortune?”
Those words, said for others to hear, would make Cui Shihan and Jiang Yinyue seem too shallow. A shop hand could toil for a couple of broken silver pieces and become the pillar of his family. Money couldn’t buy dignity; trampling on someone’s heart like this was truly wrong.
But aimed at Huo Yi, it was another matter entirely.
This man was just like Guard Commander Zheng—no dignity.
After Jiang Yinyue flung the banknotes, she muttered, “Fine, if you don’t want them.”
Just as she bent down to pick them up, Huo Yi beat her to it.
The two watched as he picked up each banknote from the ground one by one. They exchanged a glance.
They found it bitterly ironic.
That night, summoned to warm the bed, Huo Yi knelt motionless by the bedside, stiff as a wooden statue, no matter how the Eldest Princess teased him.
“Get out.”
Proud as the Eldest Princess was, how could she tolerate being brushed off by a mere servant?
She burned with fury, unable to understand why Huo Yi was so cold. But the next day, when she saw Jiang Yinyue come to pay a visit, it dawned on her like waking from a dream.
The young lady in a shimmering red skirt offered heat-clearing tea, giggling sweetly. “Courtesy demands reciprocity, Your Highness. Please calm your anger.”
Hearing Jiang Yinyue’s laughter, the Eldest Princess seemed to hear again the witty banter of that young noble from days gone by. “A hundred thousand taels just to get revenge on This Princess. Was it worth it?”
“In this humble one’s foolish opinion, Your Highness wouldn’t stand by and watch that fellow fill his pockets to bursting. Consider the hundred thousand taels a grand gift of human nature from this humble one to Your Highness. Your Highness showed this humble one the truth of hearts, so this humble one showed Your Highness the truth of hearts in return.”
One heart was worlds apart from the other.
“This Princess will return every bit of it. This Princess has no desire to return to the Capital City and have Jiang Song come collecting debts.”
Seeing the triumphant smile curl at Jiang Yinyue’s lips, the Eldest Princess slowed the motion of her fingers caressing her nail guards. Suddenly, she understood why the Crown Prince couldn’t let go. If this woman had been shallow and foolish, a mere ditz with empty beauty, she couldn’t have held the Crown Prince’s gaze—after all, the palace was full of beauties. But she was perceptive, cunning, extraordinary. Every little moment from their years together had become an indelible memory for the Crown Prince.
Even if he wouldn’t admit it on his lips, the Crown Prince must have regretted it—regretted not seeing the virtues of his childhood sweetheart back then, dismissing her as nothing but a spoiled brat who never grew up.
“Niannian, This Princess watched you and the Crown Prince grow up. This Princess always thought you two would tie the knot happily. To end up like this leaves nothing but sighs.”
“The warmth and cold are known only to oneself. This humble one is doing very well—better than before.”
“So, has Wei Qin replaced the Crown Prince in your heart?”
Jiang Yinyue laughed, just like she had back when her father had patted his chest, swearing he hadn’t been wrong about her.
“It wasn’t Wei Qin replacing the Crown Prince. This humble one simply stopped caring. From now on, the only one in this humble one’s heart will be Wei Qin.”
At this moment, Jiang Yinyue wasn’t spouting empty words like she had at the Princess Dowager’s Mansion. She calmly laid bare her true feelings.