Seeing her bearing, Jianshu wanted to say something but in the end didn’t speak.
The moment Jiang Xuening left the Xie residence, he went to the Youhuang Pavilion.
Xie Wei was playing chess with Lu Xian.
He had an air of breezy nonchalance, bearing weight as if it were light, while across from him Lu Xian wore an expression of utter despair, wishing he could reach up and tear his own scalp off. When he looked up and saw Jianshu coming in from outside, he breathed a sigh of relief as if seeing his savior.
He didn’t know which nerve Xie Ju’an had pulled lately—coming to play chess with him every single day!
His head was going to go bald from all this chess!
Xie Wei looked at the chessboard before him and asked directly: “What did she say?”
Jianshu secretly broke out in a cold sweat and said: “Second Miss Ning is determined to take the risk and try. It looks like she absolutely must rescue the person. Moreover, she seems to have some old grudge with that person in the palace. Not only does she not plan to retreat, but she even wants to take this opportunity to harm the other party.”
Xie Wei placed a piece and finally looked up.
Lu Xian stealthily observed this master and subordinate. Taking advantage of when Xie Wei turned his head, his fingers quietly crept onto the board and swiftly picked up two black pieces from the right corner, hiding them under the chess table.
Xie Wei said: “That’s something she would do.”
Of course Jianshu had seen Lu Xian’s actions. His gaze drifted for a moment before he replied to Xie Wei: “Then the plan proceeds as before, just that the substitution step is moved up earlier?”
Xie Wei said: “This time is originally a rare opportunity. Previously, Miss Ning Er spent a large sum of silver to stir up discussion of the marriage alliance in the marketplace, and we also fanned the flames from behind. Although we couldn’t achieve the plan to have Xiao Shu replace Shen Zhiyi in the marriage alliance because she was made a consort, we did arouse doubt about the marriage alliance among the common people. Moreover, the Sect Leader is also watching covetously. Although he currently can’t interfere with affairs in the capital, if the marriage alliance fails, he certainly won’t stand idly by. Thus, we only need to add a spark of fire and give it a push to incite public outrage, and we can create a situation where the court faces difficulties both internally and externally. At that time, even if Shen Lang doesn’t want to recall the Yan clan, I’m afraid he’ll have no choice but to comply. If we miss this chance, who knows when the next one will be.”
Lu Xian picked up one of his white pieces and raised his eyebrows: “So you also don’t want to give up, truly not wasting even the slightest opportunity.”
Xie Wei turned his gaze to look at him.
He showed no guilt and leisurely placed his white piece on the board, continuing: “Openly it’s your Miss Ning Er charging into battle at the front, but behind the scenes, you’re calculating even more deeply with such a black heart. Tsk, after the jade ruyi case, most of your eyes and ears in the palace were cleaned out. That Miss Ning Er of yours is quite something—more capable than you, even able to bribe eunuchs who serve the Emperor personally. If you ask me, why be so troublesome? Go around Jiang Xuening and connect with this Zheng Bao fellow directly, just have him poison the Emperor. Wouldn’t that resolve everything once and for all?”
How could poisoning in the palace be that easy?
Anything that was to enter the Emperor’s mouth had to be served in silver vessels and pass through a eunuch’s mouth first. If poisoning wasn’t designed well, the Emperor might not die from the poison, but you’d poison yourself to death first.
Lu Xian was just casually joking.
But the jade ruyi case—that had indeed been secretly manipulated by that wrongfully dead scapegoat Gongyi Cheng after he arrived in the capital. Without Xie Wei’s approval, he had used the eyes and ears that Xie Wei had planted in the palace, which resulted in drawing the attention of Empress Dowager Xiao and the Emperor, leading to a major purge in the palace that left him with few usable people there.
Lu Xian was using this to mock him.
However, Xie Wei didn’t take the bait and said calmly: “If Zheng Bao were someone of poor character who could be easily bought, I’m afraid it wouldn’t be so easy for Miss Ning Er to win him over, much less would he agree to secretly assist Miss Ning Er and help her open all doors of convenience in the palace.”
Seeing that his nonsense had diverted Xie Wei’s attention from the chessboard, Lu Xian secretly breathed a sigh of relief. After placing his own piece, he urged: “Hurry up, it’s your turn. I don’t believe I can’t beat you today.”
Xie Wei looked back at the chessboard and placed a piece on it.
He didn’t notice!
Lu Xian was secretly delighted, his tail practically wagging. He said with false sincerity: “Look at you, treating my place as your own home. Never mind not paying for tea, having me keep someone company doesn’t come cheap for others. Every morning that delicate young lady goes to your residence, yet you avoid her like the plague, showing no romantic sensibility. Xie Ju’an, oh Xie Ju’an, could it be you had a fight with her and are sulking?”
Beside them, Jianshu’s eyelid twitched wildly.
Xie Wei slowly lifted his gaze, his expression unmoved: “Lu Zhao Yin, if there’s a next time and you hide away several chess pieces, I’ll make you eat that many pieces.”
Lu Xian instantly froze: “…”
Damn it, do you have eyes in the back of your head?!
*
The next morning, at Mingfeng Palace.
The palace attendants were orderly and silent, each holding skirts, hairpins, fragrant powder.
Lady Su personally took the spiral shell ink from the box to draw Shen Zhiyi’s eyebrows.
Only halfway through, tears began falling uncontrollably.
Instead, Shen Zhiyi herself acted as if nothing was wrong. She even wiped Lady Su’s tears and said with a smile: “Lady Su watched Zhiyi grow up. Now that Zhiyi is to be married, you should be happy for Zhiyi. Why are you crying instead?”
This was fine until she said it—once she did, Lady Su couldn’t even hold the eyebrow ink steady.
So Shen Zhiyi took the ink from Lady Su’s hands, leaned close to the rhombus-patterned mirror, and began lightly sweeping and drawing stroke by stroke herself, saying: “A young lady at twenty years of age will eventually marry. It’s just that some marry near and some marry far. In any case, Lady Su cannot stay with Zhiyi for a lifetime. The world outside, I must go see for myself; the wind and rain outside, I must bear for myself. At this critical juncture, crying only makes people look down on you. Why not smile and show some spirit?”
The two eyebrows were drawn thin and long like two curved willow leaves, but the shallow scar at the corner of her eye was still somewhat visible.
Shen Zhiyi put down the spiral shell ink, picked up the fine brush from the makeup box, dipped it in a bit of cherry powder, and slowly traced over it. Following the shape of that old scar, she outlined it into a falling cherry blossom petal.
When she put down the brush and looked, she couldn’t help but smile.
She thought of Jiang Xuening and said: “This makeup really needs Ningning to do it to perfection, making it look real. But I’m going for the marriage alliance, traveling far beyond Yanmen Pass. Once I reach the Tatars, there won’t be anyone to draw this makeup for me anymore. Drawing it myself a few times first to practice is good.”
Lady Su wiped her tears and said: “After Your Highness bids farewell to His Majesty and the Empress Dowager today, your former companion readers from the palace will also enter to bid you farewell. At that time, you can ask Second Miss Jiang to paint it for you.”
Shen Zhiyi smiled: “She’ll probably cry herself into a tearful mess and won’t even be able to hold the brush steady. How could she paint for me?”
This scar was left when she was still in swaddling clothes, during the rebellion of Prince Pingnan and the Heavenly Sect. A blade had scraped her face, but fortunately her wet nurse had protected her with her own body before dying, allowing her to escape the calamity. For those in the palace who had experienced that event, this scar constantly reminded them of the tribulation the imperial family had suffered, the humiliation they had endured.
When she was young, she didn’t even dare look in mirrors.
As she gradually grew older, the people around her all told her: she was the lofty Princess, no matter how she looked, she could have whatever she wanted. Because the imperial blood flowing in her body wouldn’t change in the slightest because of this scar.
Over time, she believed it too.
Because what these people said was indeed correct—there was almost nothing under heaven she couldn’t obtain. When bored in the palace, she would summon the children of princes and nobles to enter and play. Everyone flattered her, everyone accompanied her. She could sit on Father Emperor’s lap and play carelessly with the memorials on the imperial desk, hide behind Imperial Brother and pull his hair, go to the Marquis of Yongyi’s residence and cause trouble with Yan Lin taking the blame…
But now she didn’t want to go for the marriage alliance.
Those who had doted on her, indulged her, cared for her—they had all suddenly changed their faces. They became troubled, heartless, cold, hateful, making her unable to recognize them and not daring to acknowledge them.
Only then did she understand: just as this scar that could never be removed demonstrated, even though she was a princess, sometimes fate was not under her control. And precisely because she was a princess, fate became even more unpredictable, even more difficult to resist.
Twenty years ago, what aimed at her were the rebels’ blades and swords;
Twenty years later, what harmed her was the abandonment of blood relatives.
The entire Mingfeng Palace had already been decorated in brilliant splendor.
She stared at that exceptionally calm face in the mirror, only feeling that these past days she seemed to have lost more weight, so much that she didn’t quite resemble her former self, but she felt no particular attachment either.
As she lowered her eyes and rose, someone outside happened to urge her.
It was a gorgeous but cold voice: “Grand Princess, you have already delayed for more than a quarter hour. His Majesty and the Empress Dowager must have been waiting long.”
Shen Zhiyi walked out.
From the palace gate, one could see from afar that there were actually two layers of guards, standing in strict formation—far more severe than Mingfeng Palace had ever been in the past. Palace attendants and eunuchs all kept their heads lowered, standing beneath the vermillion palace walls. Xiao Shu, who had only been made Consort Xian a month ago, stood at the very front.
In former days they were still schoolmates and companion readers, good cousins, yet now she had become her sister-in-law.
Shen Zhiyi swept a glance around: “With layer upon layer of people guarding like this, is Consort Xian worried I might escape?”
Xiao Shu’s makeup was brilliantly striking, her smile ambiguous: “Your Highness may not escape, but one can’t guarantee someone won’t want to come rescue you.”
“Hmph.”
Shen Zhiyi suddenly laughed aloud, her gaze leisurely turning back to Xiao Shu.
“Actually, Mother Empress has appreciated you quite a bit since childhood and often told me to get along well with you. Originally, you and I were cousins, so naturally I was close to you. But now you’ve transformed into my sister-in-law and completely changed your appearance. Mother Empress was angered into illness by you, and you’ve truly lived up to her cultivation. Recently, I’ve often had something I’ve wanted to say to you, kept in my heart. Do you know—”
Xiao Shu stood on the steps below, looking up at her.
Shen Zhiyi walked down one step, standing at a position one level higher than her, and suddenly without warning raised her hand and directly slapped her across the face!
“Smack!”
Xiao Shu was caught completely off guard. The golden hairpin in her hair even fell to the ground, and her pupils contracted sharply.
A few threads of dark anger accumulated in her eyes.
Yet she surprisingly didn’t fly into a rage. Instead, she stared back at Shen Zhiyi expressionlessly.
Shen Zhiyi said flatly: “You’re truly despicable like this.”