This moment of leaning against him was already the greatest fortune, like something stolen that couldn’t see the light. She felt ashamed while also being deeply immersed and unable to control herself.
She had made many attempts before, knowing that what wasn’t hers shouldn’t be coveted, must be severed, must be abandoned. She walked in daylight still noble and elegant, but in the deep chamber’s dreams, why couldn’t she be allowed to indulge once?
She held him tightly, not wanting to let go at all. He murmured calling her “Your Highness,” but she wished he could call her name directly. She remembered what she had told him on her fourteenth birthday, giving him this privilege, not needing to be as rigid as others, because she feared that too much time would pass and even she would forget what she was called. But he had never complied, perhaps fearing imperial majesty, or perhaps not wanting to become too entangled with her.
But he called Yin Luo’s name, and the first time she heard it, she was sad for a long while… When she left the Forbidden City and married down to Jiangnan, what she missed most was actually still him. She always harbored hopes that he would suddenly appear, even if not specifically for her, even if just passing by on official business.
Now Heaven probably pitied her too. She opened her eyes in a daze and saw him right outside the curtain. She called him to enter, still trying to control herself with just the words “you came.” But the more she suppressed, the more painful it became. Unable to bear it any longer, she threw away all the princess’s dignity. Even if it wronged Yin Luo, let her be selfish for a while.
“I think of you every day, but I don’t dare say it…” She choked slightly, her fingers gently stroking his hair. “I’m afraid if I speak it, I’ll be ridiculed, and people will curse me for being shameless and debasing myself.”
She had never opened her heart to him before, so today’s words truly surprised him. She had put heavy shackles on herself – marrying down to him was tantamount to treason, so even thinking of him was intolerable to heaven and earth?
He put both arms around her slender back and half-lifted her up. “You shouldn’t worry so much. I’ll bear all the merits and faults. You just need to live your own life steadily.”
She was still hesitant about consequences. “It’s not just about us two. If we only care about our own pleasure and ignore others…”
So she ultimately still couldn’t tolerate other women. His heart gradually filled with joy, because one demands exclusivity only when in love – if one doesn’t care, naturally one is happy to share.
He had truly underestimated her, never knowing she hid her emotions so deeply. How many times had he felt disheartened by her indifference – it was actually because he didn’t understand her well enough. No matter how high her status, she was ultimately a young child who would be exclusive, jealous, and moody. These troubles intertwined together, and outwardly she had to maintain perfect composure, so she could only increase the dose of coldness, finding fault with him in every way.
The more he thought, the happier he became, almost wanting to laugh out loud. The heart wrapped in solid ice had long ago melted beyond recognition before her. For these few words from her heart, even being ground to powder would be worthwhile.
“Don’t worry, you needn’t concern yourself with this matter. I’ll handle it properly.” He wished he could crush her and embed her in his body. From Hangzhou to Nanjing was quite a distance, and he had set out at dawn, riding hard all the way, enduring fatigue and hunger – it was all truly worth it.
Cheek against cheek was still not enough. In the confusion, he found her lips and kissed them – different from last time when merely kissing her forehead had provoked her furious anger. This time she actually knew how to respond, like gentle waves, tender as flower petals, lips and teeth dependent on each other, with the courage to disregard everything.
The intimate contact made her even more delicate and alluring. She pressed against the corner of his lips, breathing rapidly as if about to drown. This feeling was indescribable, truly strange… She cupped his cheeks, her fingers caressing over and over – so this was what love tasted like, so intense and dangerous.
His fingertips followed her sleeve upward, landing on her delicate shoulder. She shrank slightly, her face becoming bright red. Like a beautiful afternoon dream, he could hardly distinguish reality anymore. Desire surged, and he only knew she wasn’t resisting. He was secretly delighted – perhaps today he could make up for the regrets of their wedding night.
He undid the butterfly clasp at her collar. The silver lock suddenly came apart with a clear “ding.” Looking down at her, she frowned and bit her lip, seemingly unable to bear it, but showed absolutely no signs of anger. He kissed her again, and she softly moaned. His lips slowly moved downward, landing on her neck. She mumbled something indistinctly. At first he paid no attention, but gradually made it out – she was actually saying “Chang Chen.”
He was stunned and froze completely. A thousand-pound hammer crashed thunderously against his temple, the world spun, and he almost fainted. He had been too presumptuous – what made him think her attitude would change after their brief separation? She was still the same as before, impervious to reason, wholeheartedly thinking of Xiao Duo!
So all those words were said to that fake eunuch, and kissing him, she was treating him as another person. He suddenly burned with jealousy. What stage had she and Xiao Duo reached – was there more he didn’t know? He could tolerate her vague admiration, but couldn’t accept that she still couldn’t forget him even now. Her charming beauty wasn’t because of him. What did he, a dignified feudal prince, amount to in her eyes? A substitute? Or a cat or dog she liked to toy with at will?
He stood up abruptly, unable to reproach her. After standing with clenched teeth for a moment, he flung his sleeve and left. The person on the couch remained drowsy, deeply saddened by the “dream’s end.” After a while, when the sadness faded, she curled up and fell asleep again. This sleep lasted until the sun set in the west.
Outside there were faint sounds of putting up window screens. She leaned against the pillow with sleepy eyes. Beyond the Korean paper, a round glow rose higher and higher until it went past the eaves – were the lamps already lit?
She propped herself up and sat up. Tonghuan and Xiao You were also coming in to hang the curtains. Seeing her completely bewildered expression, they were surprised. “My Princess, sleeping until this hour today! The night-duty nannies are all waiting in the duty room, wondering whether Your Highness plans to sleep continuously through to tomorrow morning.”
She rubbed the back of her neck – her head was splitting with pain. She still had some impression of the afternoon dream, and thinking of it now, she still couldn’t help feeling stirred.
How wonderful it would be if he had really come. Unwilling to give up hope, she carefully asked Tonghuan, “While I was resting, were there any visitors?”
Tonghuan looked back at her. “Prince Yuwen came by. He wanted to enter the garden, and this servant couldn’t stop him.” Thinking of his furious expression when he left, she hesitated. “Was Your Highness awake then? Did you speak with him? This servant saw he didn’t stay long and thought Your Highness was angry with him again.”
Wanwan was confused for a while, sitting like a clay statue, thinking for a long time. She didn’t remember seeing him or offending him in any way. Too lazy to pursue it further – who cares about him anyway!
“He really doesn’t put people in his eyes, coming and going freely as usual. What’s the point of distinguishing between Grand Princess’s mansion and feudal prince’s mansion?” She complained while lazily moving down to sit before the mirror to arrange her hair. As the comb passed by her ear, she suddenly noticed a fingertip-sized red mark on her neck that looked like rouge stains. She rubbed it hard twice but couldn’t wipe it off.
Xiao You was cleaning ashes from the Boshan incenser and complained incessantly, “Everyone’s gotten slack since leaving the palace, becoming increasingly careless in their work… I don’t know who bought this incense – why are the ashes all black when burned! I’ll have to ask properly later. Deceiving their way up to the master – if we don’t make examples of a couple of them, they’ll get even more presumptuous.”
Wanwan ignored her and called Tonghuan over to look at her neck. “What is this? Was I bitten by an insect? It doesn’t hurt or itch, but it’s red over such a large area.”
Tonghuan pulled her under the lamp and studied it by the light for a long while, unable to figure out what it was. Fearing it was some rash caused by Jiangnan’s unsuitable climate, she decided to summon the imperial physician to examine what was wrong.
Yu Qixia led the mansion’s imperial physician inside. The physician first took her pulse – the pulse showed no abnormalities. Then he looked at the rash on the Grand Princess’s neck and immediately fell silent, glancing back at Yu Qixia. “Lord Yu, you see…”
Seeing his reaction, Wanwan’s heart sank, fearing she had contracted some serious illness that made even the physician hesitant and evasive, seemingly concealing her condition.
She darkened her expression. “What exactly is wrong? Tell me truthfully. If there’s any delay, I’ll hold you accountable.”
The physician looked thoroughly embarrassed and repeatedly agreed, tucking his hands and thinking for a long while. “Your Highness, this condition is commonly called purple marks, formed by external force causing blood stasis. Let me give Your Highness an analogy – if someone suffers from summer heat, traditional medicine has cupping and scraping therapies. Yours is… equivalent to cupping.” He gestured with difficulty. “Take a vessel, place it here, and suck forcefully… then you get this. This isn’t any disease and won’t harm Your Highness’s precious body in any way. After a few days of care, it will gradually fade. Once it fades, the skin color will return to normal without leaving any trace. Please be assured, Your Highness.”
Only then did Wanwan breathe a sigh of relief. As long as it wasn’t insects biting her in her dreams, that would be good. Otherwise they’d have to kill insects in the room and scatter lime everywhere, which would be too troublesome.
Tonghuan accompanied Yu Qixia to escort the physician out of the second gate. Yu Qixia stopped, his expression quite awkward. “If Your Highness doesn’t understand such things, how can you not understand either?”
Tonghuan was puzzled. “I’m not a doctor – how could I know such things! Fortunately we had it examined and there’s nothing seriously wrong. You go about your business while I return.”
She hadn’t taken it to heart at all, which was understandable. Such unseemly situations wouldn’t normally occur in the palace, and even if they occasionally did, the consorts would find ways to cover them with their collars. Although Tonghuan was older than the princess, she had no lover and might not know more than the princess. Eunuchs were different – they moved around outside and were well-informed. If the physician remained evasive and he didn’t clarify, the people inside would be even more confused.
Yu Qixia cleared his throat and pointed to where the Grand Princess had “developed symptoms.” “This is a mark left during intimate contact between men and women, generally caused by the other party’s kisses. Summoning the imperial physician for such a thing is really… Your Highness is young and doesn’t understand, but you’re her close attendant – if you don’t understand either, won’t people mock our master! By the end he was also embarrassed, frowning. “Be more alert in the future. Tomorrow use powder to cover it up and don’t let the people at the prince’s mansion see it, lest it damage our master’s dignity.”
Tonghuan stood stunned for a long while, finally understanding the origin of that mark. She felt both regretful and ashamed, angrily slapping herself on the face.
Returning to the warm chamber, Her Highness the Grand Princess was already sitting at the dining table having her evening meal. Tonghuan looked repeatedly at the purple mark on her neck. From her earlier words, she seemed not to know Prince Nanyuan had come – so how did this thing appear?
She restrained herself repeatedly but still quietly asked, “Did Your Highness truly not see Prince Nanyuan today?”
She finished rinsing her mouth before making an acknowledging sound. “I went to sleep early and indeed didn’t see him. If I had been awake, I would have had to reason with him properly. This lawless man doesn’t regard any of the rules a consort should follow when marrying a princess. Truly the mountains are high and the emperor is far away – he’s planning to become a local warlord.”
Tonghuan hesitated, the words coming to her lips before she swallowed them back. After all, these were matters between husband and wife. No matter how trusted she was, she couldn’t interfere too much. The Grand Princess’s current stubbornness was just childish persistence. After some more time, unable to withstand his gentle persistence, she would ultimately compromise. Why should she make herself the villain unnecessarily?
As for Wanwan, though she didn’t say anything, she felt somewhat guilty inside. The wonderful dream she had coincided exactly with Prince Nanyuan’s visit. She wondered if she had revealed any flaws that he had glimpsed. Her feelings for Chang Chen were unspeakable – except for Tonghuan, no one around her knew. If this secret leaked out, she would probably be too ashamed to face anyone in the future.
However, she still harbored some hope – things from dreams, if she didn’t publicize them, how could others know! With this thought she felt at ease. The next morning when Lan Zhou came to pay respects, standing beside her holding food boxes and attending to washing, she smiled and invited him to sit together. Not long after finishing breakfast, the gatekeepers reported that the secondary consorts had come to kowtow to her. She stood up and went out with Lan Zhou. Halfway there, he kept watching her expression and asked quietly, “Mother, what do you think of the mansion’s secondary consorts? Do you dislike my mother? Do you dislike Lan Ting’s mother?”
Such a small child already knew about status and the wars between women. She looked down and smiled slightly. “I don’t dislike them. They came early, I came late – why should I dislike them? Moreover, they gave birth to young masters and all have positions. Looking at yours and Second Lord’s faces, I couldn’t fail to accommodate them. Besides, we live in separate mansions anyway and don’t often meet face to face. When things come up and we gather together to be polite to each other, that’s sufficient.”
Lan Zhou quietly breathed a sigh of relief. Regarding this legitimate mother, his view had changed from initial rejection and wariness to later respect and affection, so he didn’t want her to be enemies with his birth mother. From Father’s standpoint, with this Grand Princess, all the mansion’s concubines could be dismissed. The reason they hadn’t been sent away temporarily was partly due to consideration for him and Lan Ting, but more because the Grand Princess hadn’t spoken. He was young and powerless – the only thing he could hope for was that the Grand Princess would be magnanimous and not force him to use means to protect his birth mother’s position. After all, he really liked this legitimate mother. Finding an elder he could talk with and get along harmoniously with was not an easy thing.
When Wanwan entered the Silver Peace Hall, the three secondary consorts were already waiting. Without her presence, they didn’t dare be presumptuous, just stood to one side clutching their handkerchiefs. When she was seated, they curtsied and knelt down, respectfully kowtowing three times while saying, “Greetings to Her Highness the Grand Princess, may you enjoy ten thousand blessings and golden peace.”
Wanwan accepted their ceremony, then rose from her seat to symbolically help them up. “No need to be formal – sit down and talk.”
Lan Zhou bowed to each of them in turn. Seeing her son, Tala Shi’s eyes contained smiles, and she slightly bowed in her chair. “The First Young Master is mischievous. Originally I intended to keep him close by, but I feared he wouldn’t amount to anything and would trouble Your Highness. Now seeing him, after just ten days apart, he seems much improved – all thanks to Your Highness’s guidance. Your Highness lives alone at the Princess’s mansion, and though we wish to serve, we can’t reach you. I’ve thought it over repeatedly – him being at your side may be bothersome, but he could at least run errands. Please don’t elevate him, Your Highness. Whatever you need, just command him. If he doesn’t obey, please discipline him severely – that would honor this servant.”
Her every sentence was humble and respectful. Hearing this, Wanwan just smiled. “You’re being too polite. The First Young Master understands propriety and knows advancement and retreat – you’ve raised a good son. Earlier when he was ill, I kept him because I was worried. Now that he’s completely recovered, if he wants to return to the prince’s mansion, I won’t keep him unnecessarily. After all, the brothers should be together – it won’t do if either studies or horsemanship falls behind. The mansion has ready tutors for both literary and martial arts, while here he’d have to travel back and forth, which would tire him instead.”
Tala Shi repeatedly agreed, but Lan Zhou cupped his hands. “Being filial at Mother’s side is this son’s good fortune. I’d be traveling between both places anyway, so living anywhere is the same. If I return and leave Mother alone at the Princess’s mansion, how can people feel at ease? If Mother would also move to the prince’s mansion, that would be perfect for everyone – this is my thinking. Please consider it, Mother.”
Wanwan couldn’t answer well, so she deflected with evasive words.
Zhou Shi, who had been listening to polite talk for a long time and saw them cool down, finally interjected. “We came today firstly to pay respects to Your Highness, and secondly to escort Your Highness to the mansion. Tomorrow is His Highness’s birthday. The Dowager Consort has repeatedly instructed that previously without a primary consort, His Highness celebrated simply, but this year we have a proper mistress and beg Your Highness to return to preside. Don’t worry – absolutely no trivial matters will trouble you. We servants have arranged everything that needs doing. Your Highness just needs to sit happily alongside His Highness and receive the respects of those below.”
Wanwan quite liked Zhou Shi’s straightforward way of speaking. In just a few sentences, she explained the reasons clearly – neither flattering nor humble, just right. Tomorrow was the proper day, and she had prepared to go to the prince’s mansion today. It was just that after the unpleasant parting in the middle of the night last time, returning would be somewhat awkward. She had originally planned to decline somewhat or wait until tomorrow, but just as she was about to speak, Yu Qixia came in to report that His Highness had already sent the imperial carriage to wait respectfully at the gate. Since it couldn’t be avoided, she had Tonghuan prepare while she supported herself on Yu Qixia’s arm and boarded the official palanquin.
The Grand Princess mansion’s main gate was built according to the specifications of a prince’s mansion – five bays total, three gates open and two closed, commonly called “three bright, two dark.” Even so, that spacious frontage was sufficient for her to clearly see the scene outside the gate. When the Grand Princess moved, it had to be with great fanfare. A jade palanquin stopped outside the main gate, with attendants carrying whisks, golden incense burners, and golden vases before and behind – not one was missing. As she stepped out, she saw Yuwen Liangshi standing at the bottom of the steps, not a trace of smile on his face, merely cupping his hands in salute to her. Wanwan had originally wanted to wish him birthday greetings, but seeing his expression like a creditor at the door, she immediately became quite unhappy. With cold brows and eyes, she boarded the palanquin. Without waiting for his command, she herself tapped the carriage door with her ivory fan handle, and the imperial guards, receiving the order, immediately began moving forward.