How deeply aggrieved he was.

“Your Highness.” Jiang Jin’s eyes brimmed with tears. “First Miss Yan is not yet wed, and yet you have brought her to your bedchambers. This is against all propriety.”

Qi Qingchen raised an eyebrow mildly. “What propriety? First Miss Yan has even bathed this Prince.”

“Qi Qingchen!” Yan Shiyao hurled a soft pillow at him, the tips of her ears burning hot. “That was because you were delirious and in bed you……”

Before she could finish, Qi Qingchen suddenly lunged toward her, pressed his hand against the back of her neck, and lowered his head to kiss her lips.

Yan Shiyao was so furious she pinched Qi Qingchen’s waist, a look of near-despair crossing her face.

How had he gone mad along with her?

“Yan Shiyao, if you bring that up again next time, this Prince will absolutely not let you off.” The man seized her hands, his voice pressed very low.

“Ah!” Grievance flooded up in a wave; Yan Shiyao sobbed and let out an unrestrained low cry.

Qi Qingchen frowned and wiped the tears from her face, saying helplessly, “Just don’t mention it and it’ll be fine.”

“Get lost.” Yan Shiyao batted his hand away, sniffling quietly.

Jiang Jin stared blankly at the two of them, fighting the urge to throw Yan Shiyao out of the residence by sheer force.

“My lady, let’s go outside.” Zhiqing patted her back sympathetically.

Jiang Jin bit down hard on her lip, holding back her tears.

Zhiqing gently dabbed at the corners of her eyes with a handkerchief, then gathered her courage and said, “Your Highness, the side consort’s stomach is uncomfortable.”

Qi Qingchen turned back with an impatient glance at Jiang Jin. The latter clutched her swollen belly with both hands, letting out a soft moan, her expression contorted in apparent agony.

“Why would she be uncomfortable?” The man, already irritable, grew even more so.

Jiang Jin bent at the waist, feigning pain too severe to speak.

“Wu’an.” Qi Qingchen called toward the outside of the hall. “Take Side Consort Jin to see the physician.”

Jiang Jin lowered her head as tears welled and rolled in her eyes, allowing Wu’an to lead her out of the hall.

Zhiqing pressed her lips together. She had thought His Highness would anxiously carry the side consort to the physician himself.

……

By the time Yan Shiyao returned to the Prime Minister’s manor, it was nearly dusk.

Bixiang Garden.

Yan Shiyao bit her lip and stared at the man who was being particularly attentive to her, her mind momentarily bewildered.

“A’Yao, where did you go today? Why are you back so late?” Xuan Yanyu’s voice was gentle.

Yan Shiyao lowered her eyes to the dishes he had placed on her plate with the serving chopsticks and said nothing.

She had dined at the Third Prince’s residence today, pressed into it by Qi Qingchen, and she had absolutely no appetite for another meal now.

Xuan Yanyu didn’t mind whether she answered or not. He turned his gaze to Yan Yunning, and with a curving smile, said, “A’Yao, I would like to take you to see my homeland.”

Yan Yunning ignored the burning gaze directed at her and kept her head down, eating her meal distractedly.

Yan Shiyao closed her eyes. What she had always known would come had finally arrived. He was beginning to abandon Ningning and turn his charms on her — though why so much earlier than before?

She had neither the ability to fight him nor the courage to kill him. If she did, Prince Xuan would never forgive the Prime Minister’s manor, and the Qi Emperor would — just as she had foreseen — hand the Prime Minister’s manor over to Prince Xuan without hesitation, to appease his anger.

If she refused him again, there was no telling what madness he might resort to, and she could only accept him.

Marrying him wasn’t actually so bad, she reasoned. His status was noble, she would have no one’s face to read, and he was handsome enough. When the time came, she could find a way to have a child with him.

Even if he eventually left her to cool on her own, she would no longer need to fear anything. Yan Shiyao repeated this to herself again and again, comforting and persuading herself.

“Alright, Brother Yu, when do we go?” Yan Shiyao forced a smile.

Xuan Yanyu glanced sideways at her, his slender fingers tapping idly on the rim of the teacup. “A’Yao, when would you like to go?”

Yan Shiyao’s eyes flickered. Smiling, she said, “Brother Yu, why don’t we go a little later? My brother said he’d take Ningning and me out to enjoy ourselves during the holiday.”

She didn’t want to be married off so soon; she would delay it as long as she could.

“Very well, we’ll do whatever you wish.” Xuan Yanyu swirled the tea and patiently poured a cup for Yan Shiyao.

“Would Second Miss Yan join us?” The man tilted his head slightly and said with a faint smile.

After all, how could the bride herself not attend the wedding?

Her A’Jie was already there to witness the ceremony. If she didn’t go, how was the wedding to take place?

“No.” Yan Shiyao’s grip on the teacup tightened almost imperceptibly. “Brother Yu, if you have Ningning come along, then I won’t go.”

Ningning could not go to Xuanzhao. She was afraid something would go wrong.

“If she doesn’t go, she doesn’t go.” Xuan Yanyu said airily.

Whether she went or not, his wedding would proceed without a hitch.

It was just that, for now, he still needed Yan Shiyao to give that little fool who kept refusing him one final push.

Yan Shiyao was momentarily stunned, not sure whether it meant Ningning wouldn’t go, or she herself wouldn’t go.

On reflection, it was probably saying that Ningning wouldn’t go.

Yan Yunning’s lashes gave the tiniest flutter. Her A’Jie was behaving strangely — why would she say something like if Ningning goes, she won’t go?

“A’Yao.” Xuan Yanyu drew a jade pendant from his sleeve and set it before Yan Shiyao. “A gift for you.”

Consider it a token of gratitude for the help he needed from her.

It was a pure-colored oval jade pendant with an ornate and intricate carved pattern. Yan Shiyao fixed her gaze on the pendant before her. She recognized it well — both the material and the carving. It was a piece of adornment from the Xuan Wang Palace symbolizing a noble identity.

Yet this jade pendant was not the one that symbolized the status of the Empress of Xuanzhao. The one she had seen in her visions was engraved with a dragon motif.

She had only seen that jade pendant once in ten years of visions. Xuan Yanyu had never given it to her.

He had never acknowledged her status.

She was only the one recognized by His Majesty Prince Xuan.

“Thank you, Brother Yu.” Yan Shiyao composed her expression and accepted it with a smile.

“Second Miss Yan, I accidentally broke your hairpin the other day. Allow me to compensate you today.” Without waiting for Yan Yunning to respond, Xuan Yanyu leaned in a few inches closer and slipped the hairpin into her hair.

Yan Yunning pursed her lips and studied the man who was now just inches from her face. Up close, his features were breathtakingly beautiful.

“Brother Yu, why don’t you help me tie on the jade pendant?” Yan Shiyao propped her cheek in her hand and tilted her head to look at him.

She’d said it before — Xuan Yanyu had two faces entirely. He was clearly here to bring her back to Xuanzhao, yet he was still flirting with her Ningning.

Xuan Yanyu gave a light laugh. “A pendant meant to be worn by a young lady — I genuinely don’t know how to tie it on.”

Yan Yunning’s eyes paused for just a moment.

“I’ll teach you.” Yan Shiyao smiled with eyes curving into crescents.

Xuan Yanyu propped his cheek in one hand and leaned back lazily against the wooden chair. “Very well. You tie it once, and I’ll watch and learn.”

Yan Shiyao dragged her wooden chair a little closer. “Brother Yu, pay close attention.”

The girl’s voice was soft and lilting, and she even deliberately blinked her eyes coyly at him.

Xuan Yanyu raised an eyebrow, his slender fingertip tapping against his chin in an unhurried, languid rhythm.

“Brother Yu, first adjust the length of the pendant’s cord.” Yan Shiyao said with a grin. “Brother Yu, I’d like a small bell tied on with it.”

The man said slowly, “It would look garish.”

“……Brother Yu, how is it garish?” Yan Shiyao feigned indignation and puffed out her cheeks. “Fine, I’m not teaching you anymore.”

Xuan Yanyu pinched a piece of pastry between his fingertips, studying her with a pensive look.