Chen Baoxiang was blindfolded and brought into a palace hall.

Her hands and feet were both bound. She hit the floor with a thud. Were it not for the killing intent all around her, she might have joked that the Dragon Boat Festival didn’t come this early.

But she had barely landed when a young girl spoke first.

“This is Chen Baoxiang?” A clear, sweet voice rang out through the vast hall. “She doesn’t look like much. She looks completely ordinary.”

How was she ordinary? The fact that she had crawled out of a dungeon and scraped her way to survival this long was already remarkable — she thought this, but did not actually say it aloud, and simply knelt there in silence.

Beside her, a matron said, “Your Highness, please take your medicine first.”

“I won’t, I won’t. It’s so bitter and it never ends.”

“Your Highness, be good. Once Your Highness passes her fourteenth birthday, the medicine can stop.”

Chen Baoxiang: ……

Only fourteen years old.

Never mind. What was there to argue about with a child?

“Hey — I had your hands and feet bound, but I didn’t gag your mouth. Why aren’t you saying anything?” Something nudged her leg.

Chen Baoxiang had no choice. She knelt upright and bowed with clasped hands. “Your servant pays her respects to Your Highness.”

“Your eyes are covered, and you claim to see?” Rouyi was markedly displeased. “Full of lies. Drag her out and chop her head off.”

“Yes.”

This was completely unreasonable.

Chen Baoxiang tensed. She immediately activated self-preservation mode. “Your servant has heard Magistrate Zhang speak of Your Highness.”

“Oh?” Rouyi raised her hand, halting the guards’ movement, and leaned forward with curiosity. “What did Fengqing-gege say about me?”

“He said Your Highness possesses the grace and beauty of a celestial being — something someone as plain and vulgar as your servant could never hope to compare with. He also said Your Highness is kind-hearted, so gentle that you wouldn’t step on an ant at the side of the road.” Chen Baoxiang lavished praise one compliment after another. “Such noble and pure character — your servant has long held deep admiration.”

Rouyi tilted her head with a puzzled frown. “He truly said that?”

“Every word the absolute truth.”

“That is rather strange.” The young girl before her suddenly broke into a smile. “Your Highness and Fengqing-gege have never met, nor ever exchanged a word. How would he know what your Highness looks like — and from where would he have learned of your character?”

This was bad.

Chen Baoxiang pressed her forehead to the floor and didn’t dare lift it, thinking privately — they had never even met, so why had she let her call him so familiarly? She had misjudged the situation entirely.

But having survived on her wits alone for this many years, she recovered quickly and continued: “Your servant once saw a portrait of Your Highness at the Zhang residence. Truly it was like the bright moon breaking through clouds and a phoenix returning to its nest. Your servant, having lived this long, has never seen anyone of such magnificent bearing. The people of the city speak highly of Your Highness as well — what your servant has heard with her own ears, how much more must Magistrate Zhang, who regards Your Highness as a kindred spirit, have known?”

Chen Baoxiang had already prepared herself. If this princess asked even once “why would he regard me as a kindred spirit”, she would immediately seize the opening and praise her in the same breath as Zhang Zhixu — equally merciful, not one to take lives carelessly — framing her as someone elevated so high she would have no justification for raising a blade against her.

But to her complete surprise, Rouyi listened to all of this and then said with an irritated snap: “You have been to his home?”

Was that really the point?

Dumbstruck, she had not even managed to explain herself before she heard: “Drag her out and chop her head off.”

“Your Highness.” She struggled frantically. “Your servant has committed no offense worthy of death! No offense worthy of death!”

Rouyi paused to think. “You’re right. Without even a proper charge, how can I have you executed?”

Chen Baoxiang’s spirits leaped — thinking a reprieve was at hand — but then she heard that childish voice drift out, utterly light: “Just apply the charge of insubordination then. And the two people left at her household — what are they called, Han Xiao and Zhao Huaizhu — have them both brought here and chopped as well.”

“Yes.”

Chen Baoxiang: ……

Her expression darkened. She planted her feet and refused to move. Her bound arms twisted with a sharp wrench, and she tore herself free from the guard’s grip with brute force.

The guard beside her reached to drag her back, but pulled twice without budging her an inch.

“Insolence!” The guard drew his blade. “Do you mean to defy a royal decree?!”

“They’re already planning to wipe out my household — what difference does it make whether I defy the decree or not?” Chen Baoxiang raised her blindfolded face toward the direction of Rouyi’s voice. “You and Zhang Zhixu have never met, and naturally you hold no feelings for him. So why are you throwing this baseless jealous fit? Don’t you find it absurd?”

“You — insolence!” The guard shouted.

“You can cut me down presently and open me up to see just how bold I truly am.” She raised her chin and continued toward Rouyi. “Never mind that Zhang Zhixu and I are already finished. Even if something had truly been between us — wouldn’t simply killing me be enough? Why drag innocent people into it?”

Rouyi burst out laughing, dissolving into giggles. “Jealous? This princess is not so petty. I had you brought here because Zhang Zhixu is the husband Father Emperor has chosen for me. You bewitched him — is that not an affront to my dignity?”

“And as for why drag innocent people into it—”

“No reason in particular. Simply because I have the power to do so.”

She watched Chen Baoxiang’s face flush deep red, and clapped her hands with delight: “Quickly now — bind her family and bring them here. Kill them one cut at a time right before her eyes. I want to see what else she dares to curse me with.”

“Yes.”

Chen Baoxiang struggled with everything she had. The force of it nearly snapped the ropes binding her wrists. A great wave of fire surged up inside her — grief and fury together rising straight to her throat, impossible to suppress. She clenched her fists, and for the first time in her life, she acted without thinking of the consequences. She wanted to drag someone down with her in death.

“What a lively scene.” A voice at the entrance of the hall laughed softly.

The guards blocking the doorway parted at once.

Chen Baoxiang tilted her head slightly. She caught a familiar scent of perfume and powder.

The person strolled inside fanning herself with languid grace, then stopped directly before her. A finger painted with garden balsam gave a light hook, and the strip of black cloth over Chen Baoxiang’s eyes fell away.

“Grand Princess.” She made out the face before her, and murmured hoarsely.

Li Bingsheng blinked her long lashes, and said with theatrical concern: “I only sent you to deliver a decree, and yet here you are running amok in this place, looking such a sorry mess. Your dignity matters less — but you are still carrying the Late Emperor’s personal edict.”

At these words, the guards and servants throughout the hall all sank to their knees in fright.

Li Rouyi’s face went alternately green and pale. She called out at a loss, “Auntie?”

“Who taught you to address me that way.” Li Bingsheng turned and looked at her, making no attempt to conceal her disdain. “What connection do your household and I have? Even eight degrees of kinship removed would not bring us within reach of each other.”

The little princess who had been untouchable moments before now blinked, on the verge of tears, and retreated behind her servants in helpless bewilderment.

Chen Baoxiang had no heart to enjoy the spectacle. She felt like a dried bean placed on a slanted surface, rolling helplessly downhill in a direction already laid out for her.

The Grand Princess had not been wrong. In the current situation, only she could protect her life.

In a scene like that one just now, other than dragging someone down to die with her, she could not think of a single way to save Han Xiao and Zhao Huaizhu.

“Chen Baoxiang.” The Grand Princess called her name. “Tell me — who did this to you?”

“In reply to Your Highness.” She came back to herself and bowed her head. “Your servant did it to herself by being careless on the road.”

“Oh?” Li Bingsheng raised an eyebrow. “Desecrating the Late Emperor’s personal edict — even a princess would receive twenty strokes of the board for it, to say nothing of those beneath her station. Are you certain of your answer?”

The implication was clear: either she died herself, or she made a mortal enemy of Princess Rouyi. There was no middle ground to walk.

Chen Baoxiang understood perfectly well that she had no retreat. From the moment she had been bound and brought into the palace, she had only ever had one choice to make.