“Then what happened?” Jiang Zhiyi eagerly asked, her interest piqued. “Did Elder Sister emulate the Third Princess and pretend to be ill every day to win over Military Physician Li?”

“Would your Elder Sister lower herself to use such tactics?” Bao Jia smiled coyly. “That’s what the cats were for. One big and three small—four in total.”

Instead of pretending to be ill herself, she had her cats feign illness. They could even take turns being sick. Bao Jia was more resourceful.

“So the Third Princess lost to a cat. She must have thrown quite a tantrum.”

“The more tantrums she threw, the more Li Dafeng avoided her. To escape her, he used my cat as a shield and would stay with it at my palace for half the day.”

Jiang Zhiyi wanted to say that Military Physician Li had escaped the wolf’s den only to enter the tiger’s lair. But on second thought, Li Dafeng was too shrewd not to realize that Bao Jia was the more formidable tiger.

This was more a case of knowingly heading toward the tiger’s mountain.

“When Military Physician Li came, surely he didn’t only tend to the cats?”

Bao Jia glanced at Jiang Zhiyi: “We agreed to only discuss the beginning and the end. The middle spans about a year—how could I remember it all so clearly?”

“All right, then what about the ending?”

Bao Jia smiled faintly: “The ending—”

Initially, Li Dafeng did indeed visit her palace to care for the postpartum weakened cat. Later, when the cat had fully recovered and she still invited him, it was clearly for personal reasons, and he chose to go along with it, conveniently avoiding her third sister.

But later, things changed.

Noble Consort Fan looked down on the mere son of an imperial physician as a son-in-law. Seeing her daughter’s determination to make Li Dafeng her Prince Consort, she forcefully arranged another marriage for her daughter, completely crushing her hopes.

Li Dafeng was freed from that situation and no longer needed to use her cat as an excuse, yet he still pretended ignorance and continued to visit, playing with her cats as before.

In her youthful innocence, she wondered if he had feelings for her, but didn’t know how to confirm it. Thinking there was no rush, she continued to invite him time after time, maintaining that thin veil of pretense between them.

Until her mother, the Empress, questioned this matter.

By then, her third sister had been forced into an undesirable engagement and was daily mired in melancholy. Hearing that Li Dafeng still frequently visited Bao Jia’s palace, she felt resentful and spread some unsavory rumors within the palace.

When her mother heard of this, she told Bao Jia to cease her association with Li Dafeng.

In a moment of panic, she confessed to her mother that she liked Li Dafeng and wanted him as her Prince Consort.

Unlike Noble Consort Fan, her mother didn’t insist on her daughter marrying into a prestigious family. She simply said that Li Dafeng, caught between two princesses, had gained a reputation as a troublemaker. With rumors spreading wildly, they should wait for things to calm down before discussing the matter with her father, the Emperor.

She guessed Li Dafeng was also under pressure during this time. He stopped going to the Imperial Medical Office for quite a while, let alone visiting her palace.

But because of this, she became even more determined to clarify things with him. If they couldn’t meet in person, they could still exchange messages. She had Cui Mei find an opportunity to leave the palace and deliver a handwritten letter to the Li residence, personally giving it to Li Dafeng.

She couldn’t remember what lengthy discourse she had written in that letter, only that at the end, she asked if he was willing to be her Prince Consort and wanted a definite answer. If he was willing, he should hang a red lantern on the osmanthus tree in front of his house the next day; if not, a yellow lantern.

The next day, Cui Mei went out of the palace again and returned to tell her that the lantern in front of the Li residence was red.

It was red.

He was willing to be her Prince Consort.

That might have been the happiest period in all her later years. Though she couldn’t see him, just thinking about that lantern made her smile even in her dreams.

She was a legitimate princess of the Great Ye. Unlike her third sister, she didn’t need to compromise or rely on another family’s power. She could decide her marriage, and once the rumors died down, she was confident she could persuade her father to issue a marriage decree—

She thought she had the upper hand.

But before the rumors subsided, news came that the entire Li family had been imprisoned overnight.

She was stunned, as if struck by a heavy blow, and only then realized that those rumors were not the real reason her mother had stopped her from seeing Li Dafeng.

Her mother had received early intelligence that Dr. Li’s rivals at the Imperial Medical Office had uncovered some old affairs of the Li family. They suspected the Li family had committed the crime of deceiving the Emperor during her grandfather’s reign by secretly saving a pair of twin girls who should have been executed.

When her mother received this news, the accusers had not yet gathered conclusive evidence, and the matter hadn’t been brought to her father’s attention.

But her mother knew there’s no smoke without fire, and the Li family was likely to face disaster. Not wanting her to become entangled with Li Dafeng, and to prevent her from being stubborn, her mother pacified her with promises of future consideration, temporarily stabilizing the situation to keep her obediently within the palace.

It seemed the dreams she’d been having weren’t sweet dreams but daydreams. Her mother had drawn thick curtains around her, blocking out the harsh light outside, deceiving her into believing it was night when she could dream.

She asked her mother why, having learned of this in advance with opportunities to suppress the matter, she had stood by and done nothing. Setting aside her romantic feelings for Li Dafeng, hadn’t Dr. Li served the royal family and the inner palace diligently for years? Didn’t that merit her mother’s help?

Her mother replied that, of course, it didn’t. To help would also be deceiving the Emperor. Why sacrifice oneself for others?

“But didn’t the Li family sacrifice themselves for others?”

Years later, recalling her hysterical argument with her mother that day, she no longer felt her mother had done wrong.

Living in that deep palace, her mother wasn’t the only one practicing self-preservation.

After the Li family’s downfall, her third sister rejoiced that Noble Consort Fan had made the right decision; otherwise, she would have been ruined.

None of the officials and palace consorts who had been treated or even saved by Dr. Li stood up for them. A mere sigh was the extent of their gratitude to the Li family.

In the face of the iron law against deceiving the Emperor, no one spoke a word for the Li family.

What was their fault? They simply lacked sincerity.

People at the Imperial Medical Office quickly kicked them while they were down, saying the Li family had hidden such a big secret because they feared eventual exposure, which was why Dr. Li had been so diligent all these years. Some even slandered Li Dafeng, claiming he had ingratiated himself with the legitimate princess to climb the social ladder and secure protection for the future.

Seeing these faces and hearing these cold remarks, she went to plead with her father.

If Cui Mei hadn’t told her afterward, she wouldn’t have known that she had knelt outside her father’s inner palace for three days and nights.

At first, she was relatively clearheaded as she knelt, repeatedly pleading for mercy. Later, she became disoriented, no longer feeling her body or the passage of time. She repeatedly collapsed to the ground and fell asleep, only to wake up and straighten herself to continue kneeling.

This cycle repeated until the fourth day. Despite Cui Mei constantly giving her water, she truly couldn’t endure anymore. She fainted outside the hall and was taken back to the inner palace.

When she awoke, she saw her father sitting by her bed. Thinking there might be a turn in events, she instead heard him say: “Look at the state you’ve put yourself in. It’s just a consort—Father will find you a better one.”

The hope that had just risen was lightly extinguished. It seemed being a legitimate princess wasn’t so extraordinary after all; half a life couldn’t buy a single word of pardon from her father.

Closing her eyes again, she fell into a sleep of utter despair.

Upon waking, she learned she had slept for several days and nights. Anxiously, she inquired about the Li family’s condition.

Confined to her chambers without the ability to leave, she found roundabout ways to send food and necessities to the Li family in prison. After great difficulty in getting these delivered, they were returned untouched by the Li family.

Dr. Li sent her a message through a guard, thanking the Princess for her kindness but asking her not to trouble herself further for the Li family, lest it affect her safety.

She asked about Li Dafeng—how was he, did he have any message for her?

The guard said the young master was physically well but had no message for her.

The Li family’s case didn’t require investigation by the Three Departments. With the crime of deceiving the Emperor established, a decision was quickly made. Her father sentenced the Li family to exile, ordering all male members to be banished to the border for three years, after which they could regain their freedom.

Her mother consoled her, saying this was already a lenient punishment from her father for her sake.

Was it truly lenient for her sake, or was it to showcase his benevolence? Exile meant walking thousands of miles in shackles—a blunt knife slowly cutting into flesh, taking lives while still earning praise for kindness.

She smiled and told her mother that, fortunately, her father had shown mercy, so her kneeling hadn’t been in vain.

Her mother said it was good that she had come to terms with it. Although the Li family had been spared death, after exile, they would likely be neither human nor ghost. It was best to forget Li Dafeng from now on.

She agreed, saying she had done all she could and had nothing left to let go of.

Her mother deceived her, and she could deceive her mother, too. She fooled everyone and finally got the chance to escape from that cage, fleeing alone.

She rode on horseback to catch up with the Li family’s exile procession and finally saw her beloved after a long separation. She almost didn’t recognize him at first glance.

Her beloved used to always wear flowing white robes with a jade hairpin, always clean. But that day, he wore heavy shackles, his back hunched, his face covered with bluish stubble.

No, not just that day—for over a thousand days to come, he would be like this. This would be his fate.

So when she told him she wanted to join him in exile, he smiled and said: “Has the Princess misunderstood something?”

“This criminal doesn’t need a princess who would share my hardships and sufferings. I need a princess who can give me wealth and glory, ensuring my eternal imperial favor.”

“Hasn’t the Princess heard what people at the Imperial Medical Office are saying? I plotted for so long just to use the Princess to save the entire Li family, but unfortunately, the Princess doesn’t seem to have much imperial favor either, as kneeling for three days and nights was useless.”

“Since that’s the case, the Princess should stop causing trouble. Do you expect a criminal like me to diagnose your illnesses during exile?”

What a bastard—did he think he was good at lying?

She had already learned that Li Dafeng was still young and completely unaware of his family’s affairs until after they were all imprisoned. Only then did he learn the truth while in jail.

When he hung that red lantern, he truly wanted to marry her.

But the day he put on those shackles, he also genuinely gave her up.