“Aci, I will ask you one more time — are you truly unwilling to be this Princess’s Prince Consort?”

After a long, silent exchange of gazes, Aci gave a slow nod. “Your Highness, there will be someone more suited to you than me.”

“Very well.” Xuanzhao Ran sat up from the chaise. “I’m hungry. Go make me a meal. I want something made by your own hands. Once I’ve eaten, I’ll leave.”

Aci frowned. “You’ll leave once you’ve eaten?”

“Yes.” Xuanzhao Ran wound a strand of his ink-black hair around her fingertip and let it spin.

“All right, then Your Highness please wait a moment.” Aci rose and walked to the table, picking up a plate of refreshments and placing it in her hands. “Have some of these first — I’ll bring the meal to you when it’s ready.”

Xuanzhao Ran picked up a piece of pastry, a faint glimmer passing through her eyes.

An hour later, Aci carried a tray into the room. “Your Highness, come and eat.”

“Bring it over and feed me.” Xuanzhao Ran lay sprawled on the chaise, leaving no room for refusal. “Otherwise I won’t leave even after eating.”

Aci relented and carried the tray over, crouching down in front of her. “Your Highness, what would you like to eat?”

Xuanzhao Ran looked at the dishes on the tray — a faint smell of burning rose from all of them — and her brow furrowed slightly. “What is all of this?”

Either something had gone black, or the greens were wilting limply across the plate, and even the rice had failed to clump properly, clearly undercooked. From the look of it, even a stray pup wouldn’t touch it.

Aci stared. “It’s food. Weren’t you hungry?”

It had taken him over an hour to make this.

“You eat it yourself. I’ll stick to the pastries.” Xuanzhao Ran turned her head away in clear disdain, not bothering to spare it another glance.

“Xuanzhao Ran, you’re not eating? Did I not just spend over an hour on this for nothing?” Aci said, exasperated.

“Wouldn’t eating this be poisoning myself?”

That vegetable had gone black — how could anyone eat it?

She had never once eaten a blackened vegetable in her life!

And it really did seem like something one simply could not eat!

“That’s impossible. I didn’t put anything harmful in it — it’s perfectly ordinary food.” Aci protested.

“I’m not eating it.” Xuanzhao Ran held her handkerchief in front of her mouth like a shield.

Aci’s brow creased. “You won’t eat it, yet you asked me to make it?”

“I asked you to make it — I didn’t ask you to make something even a stray pup wouldn’t eat.” Xuanzhao Ran looked at the tray in the young man’s hands with undisguised distaste. “Look at it yourself. Could you eat that?”

Aci’s gaze dropped to the tray in his hands and he fell silent.

Fine. He wasn’t going to force her. She had a point — even a stray pup probably wouldn’t touch it.

“Aci, come back to Xuanzhao with me.” Xuanzhao Ran blinked, her tone sweet and coaxing. “In Xuanzhao, you and Ningning could see each other all the time. Wouldn’t that be nice?”

Aci slowly felt his vision swim, darkness creeping at the edges. “Xuan… Xuanzhao Ran, what have you done?”

“Nothing at all. You wouldn’t listen, so I had no choice but to take you away.” Xuanzhao Ran laughed, bright and clear.

Her Crown Prince brother had told her — if there was something you wanted, find a way to get it yourself. Whatever happened, it couldn’t fall into someone else’s hands.

“You…” The tray fell from his hands without strength. Aci gripped Xuanzhao Ran by the shoulders, forcing words out with great difficulty. “I have something I must go and do — Xuanzhao Ran, I have something I must go and do.”

He had finally gotten word of the young master. At a time like this, he couldn’t… couldn’t go to Xuanzhao. He couldn’t…

The young man’s eyes reddened at the corners, his voice gone raw and hoarse. Xuanzhao Ran raised her hand and touched his face gently. “I said I’d let you go and handle it. I told you I’d wait at the residence. Why wouldn’t you listen?”

“Xuanzhao Ran!” Aci clenched his fist and fought to stay conscious.

The girl pressed her index finger to his lips and tilted her head toward the folding screen. “Ye Jian, come out. We’re going back to Xuanzhao.”

While she had kept Aci occupied by sending him off to cook, she had passed word to Ye Jian. Ye Jian had asked Ye Chen to obtain a sedative incense from the Imperial Physician Wen, and Aci had conveniently spent over an hour on cooking.

The timing had worked out perfectly. Ye Jian had just arrived at the room and lit the incense when Aci walked in right on his heels.

Otherwise she would have had to think of another way to get Aci out so Ye Jian could slip inside.

“Fifth Princess, isn’t this a bit improper?” Ye Jian hesitated.

Aci and the Second Young Miss Yan were close, after all. If the Second Young Miss found out…

“Is my Crown Prince brother still at Yuanjing Manor?” Xuanzhao Ran held up Aci, who was glaring at her with all the force he had left.

“His Royal Highness the Crown Prince had originally come with the Second Young Miss Yan to look for you. After receiving the jade pendant and having Ye’an confirm Your Highness’s safety, he returned to the capital with the Second Young Miss.”

“Then what’s the problem? My Crown Prince brother has already gone back to the Prime Minister’s estate — he won’t know I’ve brought Aci back to the Xuan Royal Palace.”

Xuanzhao Ran looked at Aci in puzzlement, unable to understand why he was still conscious enough to glare at her.

“Xuanzhao Ran! Let… let go…” As he spoke, blood surged up with his voice and dripped onto his robes, staining the ink-blue fabric in a startling crimson.

“Aci, open your mouth.” Xuanzhao Ran panicked and tried to pry his mouth open. “What are you doing?”

Aci hooked his fingers around the armrest of the chaise, forcing his eyes to stay open. His throat moved in rapid convulsions, and his mouth was filled with the taste of rust.

“Ye Jian, knock him out.”

At this rate, if he lost too much blood from the biting, what then?

“Please don’t… Your Highness.” Aci’s jaw ached from clenching so hard.

If he went to Xuanzhao and entered the Xuan Royal Palace without a token pass, he would not be able to leave.

The blood seeping from the corner of his mouth fell into Xuanzhao Ran’s palm. Xuanzhao Ran said sharply, “Ye Jian, knock him out.”

“What kind of use are you, telling you to find me a sharp-minded maidservant and you can’t even manage that?” Quan Furen’s voice drifted in from outside the room.

Aci’s fingers trembled faintly. He picked up the bowl of rice from the floor — and before he could do anything else, Ye Jian had seized his hand and pinned it down.

“I found some — they were just assigned to the young master by the aunt.”

Quan Furen frowned. “Assigned to Aci?”

“Yes, Madam. Would you like to go ask the young master to return them to you?”

“Never mind. Since they’ve been given to Aci, let Aci keep them.” The voice outside grew fainter as footsteps receded.

The tension in Aci’s chest sank. In the next instant, a sharp pain struck the back of his neck, and Aci slumped sideways onto Xuanzhao Ran’s shoulder.

“Fifth Princess, Aci doesn’t want to go to Xuanzhao. Stop making things difficult for him.”

He was quite pitiful, really. In the past, his mind had been clouded and he had been wronged by others. Then he had been gravely injured and barely survived. And now, just as he was recovering, the Fifth Princess was treating him like this.

Xuanzhao Ran was silent. She lifted her sleeve and wiped the blood from the corner of Aci’s mouth. “If he went to Xuanzhao, this Princess could guarantee he’d never want for food or comfort. Why won’t he agree? Is this Princess really so unlovable?”

Her Imperial Father and Imperial Mother were already arranging a betrothal for her, and Imperial Mother had begun selecting suitable candidates.

If she had someone she cared for, the Crown Prince brother could speak to Imperial Father on her behalf to have it settled — and she would not have to marry someone else.

She had no grounds to refuse on her own. So she could only follow Imperial Father’s and Imperial Mother’s wishes. She was not her Crown Prince brother — she could not be headstrong beyond a point. Imperial Father would grow weary of it.

If it were not for her Crown Prince brother, Imperial Father would not have treated her and her Imperial Sister any differently from the others.

In Imperial Father’s heart, no one came before her Crown Prince brother.

One could say her Crown Prince brother was Imperial Father’s very life. From childhood onward, he had been raised with Imperial Father’s constant doting — not once had Imperial Father the heart to punish him.

What she had envied most as a child was this: her Crown Prince brother could ride on Imperial Father’s shoulders, going round and round the Imperial Garden — something no one else was allowed.