Left Military General and Duke of Su State, Cheng Yaojin, who was approaching fifty years of age, agreed to marry Minister Wei Zheng’s second daughter Wei Shuyao as his primary wife with a betrothal gift of thirty thousand bolts of silk.

“Yao… she’s not even thirteen yet…” Wei Shubin was stunned, tears streaming down her face. Her mother, Madam Pei, looked at her daughter and also began to cry:

“I know, but what can we do… The Cui family has been pressing urgently. If we don’t finalize the marriage next month, they’ll betroth their daughter to another family. Your father couldn’t bear such an insult… It shouldn’t have come to this. We’ve been frugal and saving, thinking we could borrow and gather enough to make up the thirty thousand silk for Yu…”

Wei Shubin knew her parents weren’t extravagant, even saving the occasional rewards from the Emperor and Empress for their children’s marriages. From her mother’s words, it seemed their years of savings were close to reaching thirty thousand silk, however…

“But what happened?”

Madam Pei wiped her tears: “Some days ago, His Majesty summoned your father, asking him to continue investigating the death of the Princess of Linfen. Your father said he had received the Empress’s edict to stop handling the case, but His Majesty wouldn’t let it go. He said many things that your father repeated to me, though I can’t remember them all. Finally, His Majesty mentioned that he heard Xuancheng Gong’s eldest son was to take a wife, and the palace wished to gift thirty thousand silk to help with the betrothal…”

“Really? Such good fortune?” Wei Shubin was surprised. Wasn’t this like wealth falling from heaven?

The Emperor was truly well-informed…

“What good fortune?” Madam Pei smiled bitterly, “Your father lost his temper then, saying something about how a sage ruler shouldn’t try to buy officials with money. Naturally, this displeased His Majesty… Your father thought we had our savings and didn’t need to bow and scrape for money. Who knew that just two days later…”

“What happened?”

“The storehouse at our Weibei estate caught fire… No one was hurt, but all our years of stored grain, rice, and textiles were…”

Her mother began crying again. Wei Shubin sat silently, her mind racing.

Even as ruler of the realm, shouldn’t one have some shame…

“So we couldn’t gather thirty thousand silk anymore,” she said slowly. “So Father went to negotiate with General Cheng again, offering a different daughter for marriage, reducing the betrothal gift from fifty thousand to thirty thousand silk? Rather than comply with the imperial order to reinvestigate the Princess of Linfen’s case?”

“Ah, child, what do you take your father for?” Madam Pei sighed. “Since that day you ran away, your father never mentioned marrying off his daughters again. Who doesn’t understand that forced marriages aren’t right? It was I who, seeing him sighing night after night, his beard half turned white, invited the eldest Miss Cui to discuss. After much persuasion, she suggested this idea and went to speak with General Cheng personally.”

“General Cheng said he wanted to marry my second sister?” Why didn’t she stab Cheng Yaojin’s big belly that day outside the Purple Void Temple?

Madam Pei smiled bitterly: “According to what Miss Cui relayed, General Cheng was interested in… you.”

“What?” Wei Shubin was so shocked her mouth hung open.

“Miss Cui said that General Cheng, though just returned from abroad, had somehow seen you twice already. He praised you highly, saying you were clever and brave, learned and capable of writing, from a good family background, and that your father was an old acquaintance – making it a perfect match. The two of them, one civil and one military official, are now working together on some imperial decree, so becoming family would allow them to support each other…”

“What matter?” Wei Shubin repeated unconsciously. Her mother, thinking she was asking, frowned in thought:

“It’s still related to the Princess of Linfen’s death case. Something about Prince Wu, who arranged the marriage, causing huge trouble and throwing the Great Peace Palace into chaos. Weren’t you and the Daoist Master also involved? His Majesty originally wanted your father to continue investigating the Princess’s death, but after this incident, he changed his mind. Your father said since it involves the Supreme Emperor and needs to be recorded in the official histories, His Majesty wants him to handle Prince Wu’s case but won’t let him question people now. The Prince is currently under General Cheng’s custody and something about… Ah, I’m not clear on these things, they’re just matters for men to worry about.”

Wei Shubin felt as if a thousand hornets were buzzing in her ears, her heart heavy with anxiety. Seeing her state, Madam Pei sighed: “Let’s not talk about those unrelated matters, let’s discuss our family. General Cheng has been recalled to the capital this time to take charge of the imperial guard and looks to be staying permanently. During yearly festivals and court ceremonies, it’s very inconvenient without a proper lady in the house. Miss Cui meant well when she told him about you… that you were at Purple Void Temple practicing cultivation and praying for blessings, and had received the Empress’s edict to help the Daoist Master compile medical books, so you might not be able to marry for a year or more. She persuaded the General to marry your second sister instead, and he agreed… She’s still a daughter of the Wei family, of the same background, and Yao isn’t stupid…”

“She’s not even thirteen,” Wei Shubin said softly. “She’s more obedient than me, with a good temperament, always doing whatever our parents say, with no opinions of her own. Since childhood, she’s worn my old clothes, played with my discarded toys, and now even the husband I rejected is being passed to her…”

She couldn’t continue, raising a hand to cover her mouth, also blocking the bitter feeling rising in her chest. Her mother sitting opposite remained silent in dejection.

Suddenly, Wei Shubin fully understood Li Yuanxu’s determination to save his sister at the cost of his life. It wasn’t necessarily because he deeply loved his sibling – it was because he harbored great indignation and couldn’t tolerate such unfairness and injustice.

Whether it was the Seventeenth Princess or her second sister Shuyao, they were all innocent and vulnerable young women whose only fault was being born into the wrong families, and being used as tools without any power to resist. They all had people in positions of authority who should have protected them – the Supreme Emperor, the Emperor and Empress, the Crown Prince, and their parents… but in the end, they discovered that the only ones who truly cared for them were their siblings who weren’t much older than themselves.

Through her tears, Wei Shubin thought quietly: What was destined for me to bear, what I brought upon myself through my own choices, shouldn’t be shouldered by my younger, more vulnerable sister.

She had to do something. She didn’t know what to do or how to do it effectively, how to guide the dangerous undercurrents of court politics in the direction she hoped for. Perhaps she was being wishful again, perhaps her rash actions would backfire, perhaps she would personally destroy herself and those she truly cared about, perhaps…

But she had to do something. She couldn’t just sit idly in this dark room where sunlight couldn’t reach, crying and praying, drifting with the current, hoping everything would improve on its own.

She thought of those aged, wooden walking corpses in Wanshan Temple, the vacant otherworldliness of the last empresses of the Zhou and Sui dynasties, and the ashen despair of the former Crown Prince’s consort Zheng Guanyin. She also thought of the Supreme Empress Dowager Dou’s portrait enshrined in the main hall of Xingsheng Temple, and Princess Pingyang’s vivid smile in the small courtyard of the Chai Prince Consort’s mansion. She thought of Chai Yingluo, the white tiger spirit who had caused the death of three imperial grandsons, yet still moved gracefully among the imperial nobles daily, with radiant beauty and clear eyes; of the widowed Princess of Hailing, Yang, who after nine years of widowhood became pregnant with an illegitimate child, and her soft yet firm voice:

“I placed my bet, I’ll accept the consequences whether I win or lose…”

“Mother,” Wei Shubin raised her face toward her mother, seeing only trembling light through her tears:

“I’ll marry General Cheng… let Yao stay home for a few more years.”

She was willing, with no regrets even unto death. Whether Cheng Yaojin was a brute or a man-eating beast, she would bear it all herself.

And… she secretly smiled to herself. Chai Yingluo had recently learned that Prince Wu Yuanxu was being held in the Xuanwu Gate tower, while Yang Xinzhi was confined in the garrison barracks, both under General Cheng’s guards’ supervision. Future arrangements would likely also be handled by Cheng Yaojin.

“The several grave offenses committed by Fourteenth Uncle, if sent to the Ministry of Justice and the Court of Judicial Review for proper legal judgment, would undoubtedly be capital crimes,” the female Daoist had told Wei Shubin directly, showing unprecedented dejection and helplessness on her face. “His Majesty does wish to protect him. It’s also because the Supreme Emperor is gravely ill and near death – they fear news of Fourteenth Uncle’s troubles might reach the old man’s ears, or even if it doesn’t, disposing of the Supreme Emperor’s young son right before his death would look too awful in the historical records… Ah, but who knows how long they can drag this out by keeping him confined…”

How long could it be dragged out… Could it be dragged out until… someone figured out a way to secretly help Li Yuanxu escape past General Cheng and his men, allowing him to flee far away?

Just now, her mother had also revealed that His Majesty intended to have her father, Minister Wei, handle this case. If she, Wei Shubin, fulfilled her father’s wishes by obediently marrying into the Cheng family, and reconciling with her father, perhaps she could plead for Prince Wu in the ears of her father and… husband, helping him escape this greatest crisis of his life?

If this could truly happen, if she could truly help that unfortunate but pure-hearted youth reduce his charges and escape imprisonment, returning to the noble life he should have had, what more dissatisfaction or resentment could she harbor?

Her marriage as Madam Cheng of the Wei family should receive the blessings of all deities in heaven and earth, shouldn’t it?

In her mother’s tearful embrace, Wei Shubin smiled skyward, her fate now sealed.