As the lamps were being lit, inside the warm chamber of Yaoguang Pavilion, Gu Yu and Xiaoman stood helplessly before the beauty couch, eyes wide as they watched the person collapse in tears.
After lunch at the Shen mansion today, Qing Song had repeatedly urged them to leave, claiming it was by his master’s order. The Princess grew annoyed and had Xiaoman wear a veiled hat to disguise herself as the Princess and leave the Shen mansion, while she secretly stayed behind to see exactly what kind of girl the Young General Shen was bringing back.
Gu Yu and Xiaoman had cautioned her a thousand times before leaving, telling the Princess to send word if anything happened. How could they have imagined that the Princess would come running back in tears herself!
The Princess normally traveled by carriage or sedan chair, never walking if she could avoid it. How heartbroken must she be to travel on foot!
In this cold weather, the Princess returned with her nose and ears flushed red from the cold. As soon as she entered the room, she burst into loud sobs, her tears flowing faster than they could be wiped away…
Could she have caught them in the act?
“Princess, what happened?” After Jiang Zhiyi had cried for quite some time, Gu Yu finally dared to bend down and ask carefully.
“He’s changed… he’s no longer the A-Ce ge that he used to be…”
“‘One sees the new love smile, and hears the old love cry.’ What the books say is all true…”
“Him having a new lover would be… would be one thing,” Jiang Zhiyi sobbed with tears streaming down her face, speaking until she could barely catch her breath, nearly fainting, “but he even smashed… smashed the token of love I gave him right in front of me—”
Gu Yu was shocked: “How could he do such a thing!”
Jiang Zhiyi took a trembling deep breath, clutching her collar: “What he smashed wasn’t just the jade pendant, but my heart…”
Gu Yu quickly rubbed her back: “Princess, please don’t cry yourself sick. A heartless man like that isn’t worth it!”
“Exactly! Young General Shen looks decent enough, but I never expected him to be such a—” Xiaoman couldn’t come up with the flowery, sour words the Princess used, so after struggling for a while, she blurted out, “such a non-human!”
Gu Yu: “Not just non-human, he’s absolutely… worthless!”
A maid rushed in from outside, stopping abruptly at the doorway, looking inside with trepidation: “That—Young General Shen, who is ‘worthless’, wants to see the Princess. Will the Princess receive him?”
Jiang Zhiyi choked back a sob and slowly climbed up from the couch with her tear-stained face: “…What did you say?”
“Young General Shen has come to the mansion looking for you. He says there’s some misunderstanding between you. What do you think?”
Jiang Zhiyi’s tears paused momentarily, but in the next instant, that fierce, threatening face flashed through her mind again, along with that decisive hand that had smashed the jade.
“Misunderstanding? My biggest misunderstanding with him was thinking he was different from those heartless men who abandon their first wives once they achieve fame!”
Gu Yu: “Exactly! First, driving our Princess out, then talking about some misunderstanding? Is our Princess someone he can summon at will and dismiss as he pleases?”
“But Young General Shen is still waiting at the entrance. His expression looks… deeply troubled…”
Jiang Zhiyi was stunned for a moment, then laughed bitterly.
“Now he’s deeply troubled? Wasn’t he the one bullying people, playing both the good cop and bad cop all by himself…” Jiang Zhiyi wiped her tears, so angry that she didn’t even want to cry anymore. “When the jade shattered, our relationship ended. Our bond was broken the moment he smashed that jade. Let him live happily ever after with his new lover!”
Late that night, the lamps blazed in the study of the Shen mansion. Shen Yuance sat at his desk with a face as black as mud, holding tweezers in one hand and a wooden spoon filled with fish bladder glue in the other, staring intently at the scattered pieces of jade before him.
Applying glue to the edges of the broken jade, using tweezers to press two pieces together, holding them fixed for a moment until they stuck, then picking up another piece and repeating the process…
With a soft sound, the first two pieces came apart.
“…”
After repairing the east wall only to have the west wall collapse for who knows how many times, Shen Yuance finally set down the items in his hands.
Kneeling on the ground, Mu Xinhong and Qing Song heard the sound and looked up to see Shen Yuance loosening his collar, getting up to walk to the window, and folding his hands covered in sticky glue behind his back.
Mu Xinhong: “Young General, you should go rest. When this humble servant finds the missing piece of jade, I’ll help you glue it together.”
Qing Song: “This jade is too slippery to hold, and it’s broken into such small pieces. Why not invite a jade craftsman to repair it?”
Mu Xinhong gave him a fierce glare: “Such an intimate token, which the Elder Young Master guarded so carefully, even from you, and now you want to make it known to everyone?”
Qing Song was already heartbroken about being kept in the dark all this time. He replied with a soft “oh,” rubbed his teary eyes, then knelt and continued to search the floor for the missing dot of the character “Yi” on the jade pendant.
“Sigh… It’s all my fault for being so bold today, actually daring to drive the Princess away. This must be heaven’s punishment for me…”
Mu Xinhong pounded his numb leg and crawled on his knees to another unsearched area: “By your logic, I’ve helped the Young General dismiss the Princess many times before, so my punishment should be far worse than yours!”
Just as they finished speaking, they felt a chill run down their spines. Turning around, they saw Shen Yuance looking at them coldly.
…Indeed, what were they competing for? In the field of suffering punishment, if the Young General claimed second place, who would dare claim first?
Shen Yuance stood by the window to get some air, then turned back with furrowed brows and pointed at the pile of jade fragments: “Must we fuss over this thing?”
The most urgent matter now was to explain clearly to the Princess about the “new lover,” to prevent her from calming down and realizing that it wasn’t a case of “lover changing heart” but “lover changing person.”
But now the Princess refused to see anyone, saying that with the jade shattered, their relationship was over. It seemed the crux of the problem lay with this piece of jade.
Qing Song: “Without something to appease the Princess’s anger, we might not even have a chance to explain…”
Shen Yuance closed his eyes briefly, then turned to Mu Xinhong: “Haven’t you been married for several years? Don’t you have some methods to pacify… You know?”
Mu Xinhong: “As a dignified man of seven feet, how could I pacify women?”
Shen Yuance raised an eyebrow dangerously.
“I…” Mu Xinhong coughed lightly, pointing at his knees on the floor, “I just knelt before her directly.”
“…”
“Otherwise, just—”
“?”
Mu Xinhong scratched his head awkwardly, looking at the young general who had not yet reached adulthood, and mumbled through his nose: “Just do some… lovey-dovey things…”
“……”
Shen Yuance turned his back, facing the cold winter night wind, and raised his hand to loosen his collar even more.
Qing Song mumbled with a red face: “That doesn’t seem right. There’s already a token of love, so the Princess and the Elder Young Master must have been privately engaged. That would make the Princess the Young Master’s widowed sister-in-law. Wouldn’t this violate proper relations?”
Mu Xinhong: “Then what do you suggest we do?”
“If we really can’t repair this jade, why not find something else to please the Princess? It was the Princess’s birthday not long ago, and I heard many young masters from noble families sent gifts.”
“When giving gifts, you either give what someone lacks or what someone likes. The Princess gets whatever she wants, so what could she possibly lack? And things she likes are surely precious treasures that we can’t easily find on short notice. Even if we found something, it couldn’t compare to what those wealthy young masters from established families could offer.”
Qing Song thought for a moment, then suddenly lit up and clapped his hands: “Then let’s give something special! Something that other young masters don’t have, something only our master can offer!”
Early the next morning, in the bedchamber of Yaoguang Pavilion, Jiang Zhiyi sat leaning against the bed with her disheveled black hair loose, her eyes swollen like walnuts. Listlessly, she rinsed her mouth with water from the jade basin held by Xiaoman and drank a cup of calming tea.
After tossing and turning all night, she had finally fallen asleep briefly at dawn, only to dream of catching her lover in the act at the Shen mansion.
In the dream, she hid outside the wing room of the Shen mansion, watching a woman whose face she couldn’t see nestled in A-Ce ge’s arms, sobbing: “You drove away the Princess for me. Now I’ve taken her place and surely offended her terribly. I’m so scared…”
Then, that familiar male voice responded tenderly: “How can this be called taking her place? She was the intruder, and you are my rightful partner. Don’t be afraid, I’ll take care of her right away.”
Before she could understand what “take care of” meant in the dream, a flash of silver sword light came straight at her face!
She woke up screaming to see the terrified faces of Gu Yu and Xiaoman…
Even now, Jiang Zhiyi was still touching her chest, heart palpitating, unable to recover from the shock.
If it were just a dream, that would be one thing, but the dense chill that crawled up her spine when the sword flashed in the dream was the same feeling she had yesterday when those cold eyes stared at her in the study.
That seemed like… killing intent.
Could it be that yesterday he wanted to kill her…
“Don’t be afraid, Princess. Dreams mean the opposite of reality,” Xiaoman comforted her.
Gu Yu: “Yes, you are the current dynasty’s Princess. Even if Young General Shen has a new lover, he wouldn’t dare to harm you!”
Just as she finished speaking, a maid entered, leading several female servants: “Princess, Young General Shen has sent a chest of items for you, saying it’s a token of his sincerity.”
Gu Yu: “See? After offending you yesterday, Young General Shen is eager to make amends!”
Jiang Zhiyi’s expression eased slightly, her suspended heart slowly settling back down. She frowned and raised her eyes to look at the large wooden chest behind the maid: “What is it?”
“This servant doesn’t know. General Mu, who delivered it, said it was a surprise, and you would understand once you saw it.”
“A surprise?” Jiang Zhiyi snorted coldly. “Is there anything in this world that could surprise me? I won’t look!”
“Then this servant will have them carry it out.”
The four female servants picked up the carrying poles again, took a deep breath, centered their energy, and lifted the chest, staggering out one wobbly step at a time.
These were the strongest servants in the compound, with strength no less than men’s, yet the four of them together struggled to carry it. What could be inside?
Jiang Zhiyi blinked curiously: “Wait.”
The servants turned around on the spot, carrying the chest back to face her.
Jiang Zhiyi sat on the couch, looking down at the large chest from her elevated position.
For many years, no one had dared to use the word “surprise” to describe gifts sent to her. She would take a look to see what could be so presumptuous.
Just one look wouldn’t interfere with her decision to sever all ties with him.
Jiang Zhiyi reluctantly gestured toward the floor with her chin: “Put it here.”
The servants complied, setting down the chest, removing the carrying poles, undoing the locks, and respectfully retreating.
Jiang Zhiyi, supported by Gu Yu’s arm, walked down from the couch to the chest. She scrutinized the plain wooden box, frowning. Placing a handkerchief in her palm, she bent down and pushed the lid open.
With a snap, the lid opened, and countless dazzling silver rays shot out. Several gasps of cold air were drawn as Gu Yu and Xiaoman pulled Jiang Zhiyi back three steps, one on each side!
Jiang Zhiyi, still catching her breath in shock, tremblingly pointed a finger at the chest full of large swords: “…Do you see? He, he wants to kill me!”