When Zhang Jingqing accompanied Chen Qijiang to the Zhao residence, it happened to be snowing. Neither of them had servants hold umbrellas as they entered familiarly.

Just as they entered, before reaching the main hall, a soft pink little bundle crashed into his arms. Zhang Jingqing looked down to see a delicately carved little girl who didn’t even reach his thigh, with several teardrops still hanging on her face.

How adorable.

“Zhao Wan’er, you come eat!”

The little girl quickly hid behind Zhang Jingqing. Sure enough, soon Zhao Ruohua came striding over angrily, seeing the two of them and curtly saying: “Greetings to Prince Huai’an.”

“Come, let me see – our Wan’er has grown taller again.” Chen Qijiang lifted the little girl and held her in his arms, looking at Zhao Ruohua indulgently. “Ah Ruo has such a temper.”

Before returning to the capital, Zhang Jingqing had heard that during his three-year absence, the Zhao residence had gained a little girl who was quite a handful.

“You two busy men have time to visit the Zhao residence today?” Zhao Ruohua led Zhang Jingqing and the other inside, taking a piece of osmanthus pastry to feed the little one in Chen Qijiang’s arms.

“What could be more important than Miss Zhao’s birthday?” Zhang Jingqing watched Chen Qijiang take out a box he had prepared long ago and present it with a flattering smile. Disdainful, he turned back to meet Zhao Ruohua’s narrowed eyes looking at him, startled, and immediately presented his gift, echoing: “Yes, yes, yes. To catch Miss Zhao’s birthday, we exhausted three horses.”

Emperor’s eldest son Zhang Jingqing, Chen family’s legitimate eldest son Chen Qijiang, and Zhao family’s legitimate daughter Zhao Ruohua were the capital’s famous iron triangle.

Zhang Jingqing had known since childhood that the Zhao family’s daughter was to marry him. He and Zhao Ruohua met a year before Chen Qijiang. Both initially interacted with marriage as the goal, but somehow ended up becoming friends instead.

The following year, they met Chen Qijiang. Zhao Ruohua fell in love with him at first sight, and Zhang Jingqing was happy to be the third wheel.

He had been the third wheel for ten years now.

In another year, when Zhao Ruohua came of age, the two should marry.

Feeling someone tugging at his clothes, Zhang Jingqing looked down to see the little girl who had been in Chen Qijiang’s arms now standing in front of him, holding a handful of snow and saying in a baby voice: “Sister, hug.”

Sister?

Zhang Jingqing figured the child was too young to distinguish people. He reached out to pick her up, and as soon as he placed her on his lap, a ball of snow was stuffed into his collar.

This little girl…

Zhang Jingqing raised an eyebrow and took the snow from his collar, placing it on the little girl’s head.

Immediately, earth-shattering cries erupted.

Zhang Jingqing quickly brushed off the snow, looking helplessly at Zhao Ruohua, who was watching the show with amusement and had no intention of helping him.

Zhang Jingqing only had one younger brother who wasn’t close to him since childhood. He really had no experience with children and could only gently hold the little girl, making his voice as gentle as possible: “I was wrong, I was wrong. Don’t cry, please don’t cry.”

“Sister’s voice is so rough.” The little girl burrowed into Zhang Jingqing’s arms, sniffling as she spoke, wiping her runny nose all over Zhang Jingqing.

Not shy with strangers, and her eyesight wasn’t good either.

Zhao Wan’er and Zhang Jingqing’s first meeting ended with Zhang Jingqing making Zhao Wan’er cry and Zhao Wan’er covering Zhang Jingqing with snot.

When Zhang Jingqing returned to the capital, the iron triangle met as frequently as they had three years ago, except now there was always a crybaby little girl with them.

Zhao Mother’s health was poor, Zhao Father was stationed at the frontier, and the Zhao family’s legitimate son was training at the military camp all day. The task of caring for Zhao Wan’er fell to her elder sister, Zhao Ruohua. Fortunately, although Zhao Wan’er loved to cry, she didn’t cause trouble, so Ruohua was happy to bring her along.

“Is the Empress Dowager still guarding against you?” On a day without snow, the three agreed to go out and listen to music. After the waiter served the dishes, Chen Qijiang asked Zhang Jingqing.

Zhang Jingqing nodded, picking up a piece of meat and bringing it to the little girl’s mouth in his arms, smiling helplessly.

Since the late Emperor’s death eight years ago, when the Empress Dowager held the current Emperor for his ascension, she had been guarding against him. The late Emperor had many children, but only he and His Majesty survived. With an eight-year age difference, since His Majesty’s ascension, the voices in court supporting him as emperor had gradually decreased, but the voices calling for him to be regent grew louder.

“Who wants to be a damn regent?” Zhang Jingqing cursed under his breath, then picked up another piece of meat for the little girl.

These were treasonous words, but the two listeners showed no reaction, as if they had long grown accustomed to it.

“Ah Qing, don’t feed more meat. Wan’er wants to eat something else too.”

Zhang Jingqing chuckled and picked up a vegetable for her. For some reason, Zhao Ruohua’s sister was very fond of him, always clinging to him and calling him her sister. After correcting her many times, she followed Zhao Ruohua’s lead and called him Ah Qing.

He didn’t argue with a small child.

They hadn’t been sitting long when someone knocked and entered, quietly telling Zhang Jingqing that the Empress Dowager had sent people to the Prince’s mansion.

“I have to go.” Zhang Jingqing placed the little girl in Zhao Ruohua’s arms. Seeing she wouldn’t let go, he gently coaxed her. The little girl gripped his collar tightly, shaking her head. Seeing that she was about to cry, Zhang Jingqing quickly picked her up again. “I’ll send her back to the Zhao residence later.”

So he took Zhao Wan’er in the carriage back to the Prince’s mansion in the south of the city.

The carriage swayed, and Zhao Wan’er fell asleep in his arms. After getting off the carriage, Zhang Jingqing handed her to the wet nurse.

The Empress Dowager had nothing important – she just said Zhang Jingqing was getting old and should marry a princess consort and go to his fief to guard a place of peace.

In plain terms, she feared he had some scheme in the capital and wanted to quickly send him to his fief with a woman to monitor him.

Zhang Jingqing thought for a moment, then smiled and said: “Please trouble father-in-law to report back to Her Majesty the Empress Dowager – it’s not that this prince doesn’t want to leave, but truly because Father Emperor forbade it, issuing an edict that this prince must stay until His Majesty reaches adulthood.”

Sigh, what a mess this all was.

Nine years ago, he was living peacefully in his prince’s mansion when he was suddenly summoned to the palace. How strange – this unfavored prince with zero presence could have a private audience with the emperor.

Father Emperor had gravely told him he must wait until his imperial brother reached adulthood before going to his fief, even saying he would issue an edict. The next night, after saying this, he passed away.

But… the late Emperor wouldn’t let him produce the edict.

But a son dared not disobey his father’s words. Having endured nine years, he would endure another eleven.

But the voices in court supporting him as regent were really getting louder. These old men – how could they think of someone like him, who had barely attended court a few times?

Zhang Jingqing could only visit their residences one by one, appealing to emotion and reason to make them abandon this idea, but with little effect.

Gradually, there were even rumors that Prince Huai’an was forming cliques for personal gain.

When he heard this news, Zhang Jingqing was accompanying Zhao Wan’er in flying a kite. He was so angry that he directly let go of the string, causing Zhao Wan’er to cry loudly, and he had to quickly comfort her.

He finally understood – since returning to the capital, Zhao Ruohua spent every day being lovey-dovey with Chen Qijiang, dumping her sister on him. What kind of situation was it for a prince to babysit every day?

When he said this to Zhao Ruohua, she glanced at him sideways and said exactly, “You should marry a Zhao family daughter anyway. Since I’m impossible, you should raise little Wan’er as your wife. In the future, you’ll have to respectfully call me elder sister, right, future brother-in-law?”

Zhang Jingqing felt that if he hadn’t been taught from childhood not to hit women, he really could push Zhao Ruohua into the river.

Looking at the little girl sleeping soundly beside him, there were still eleven years until she came of age, just when he could leave the capital. If this crybaby little girl followed him to his fief, what if she flooded the people with her tears?

Zhang Jingqing felt he must be crazy to be raising her as his wife.

The next two years were quite difficult. The Empress Dowager never believed he had any designs on the throne, guarding against him everywhere, even requiring several people to follow him when he went out.

Border wars were urgent, court factions conflicted, and Zhao Ruohua and Chen Qijiang’s wedding was delayed repeatedly.

By the tenth year of Jinghui, the Western Barbarians mobilized troops. The border had no grain reserves, so Zhang Jingqing volunteered to transport supplies. He thought that if he contributed, the Empress Dowager might lower her guard.

When he returned after delivering the supplies, snow was already falling in the capital. After reporting to the palace, Zhang Jingqing went to the Zhao residence.

Zhao Wan’er saw him and called “Ah Qing, Ah Qing” as she rushed into his arms. He hugged her – hmm, she had gotten heavier.

After playing in the snow with her for a while, she said she was sleepy and wanted a nap, promising to play with him more tomorrow.

This little girl not only ate a lot but also slept for long periods.

He was probably going to marry a pig.

Thinking this way, Zhang Jingqing suddenly felt that the events of recent years weren’t so troublesome. He seemed to quite like winter.

After that day, the court situation became turbulent. Zhang Jingqing avoided suspicion by not visiting the Zhao and Chen residences for a long time, ignoring outside affairs and only writing poetry and painting daily in his prince’s mansion, completely acting like an idle prince.

After enduring the hot summer, the early autumn evenings were much cooler. Zhang Jingqing had wanted to have a drink when Chen Qijiang, reeking of alcohol, barged into the prince’s mansion despite others’ attempts to stop him.

He could no longer marry the woman he loved.

Chen Qijiang got drunk at his place, gripping his shoulder and begging him not to rebel.

The next day, Chen Qijiang got up and had breakfast at the prince’s mansion as usual. Before leaving, he told Zhang Jingqing to take care.

Zhang Jingqing smiled and told him to leave quickly, pretending not to see his close friend’s concerned gaze.

In the autumn of the tenth year of Jinghui, the Empress Dowager issued three consecutive edicts in the Emperor’s name.

The first: Commanding the Zhao family army stationed at the western frontier to repel the Western Barbarian forces within five years.

The second: Announcing that the Zhao family’s youngest daughter would enter the palace in the spring of the eleventh year of Jinghui to accompany the Empress Dowager and serve as the Emperor’s study companion.

The third: On suspicion of forming cliques for private gain, ordering Prince Huai’an to be confined to his mansion for three years.

When Zhang Jingqing received this edict, his first reaction was actually that he wouldn’t be able to play in the snow with the Zhao family’s little girl in winter.

The situation in the capital changed, and the iron triangle scattered like this.

Zhang Jingqing understood the Empress Dowager’s meaning: “An innocent man becomes guilty when he possesses a treasure.”

Even if he tried every means to prove he had no intention of rebellion, as long as he was the late Emperor’s son with royal blood and could threaten His Majesty’s rule, he was guilty.

He kept thinking he would endure a bit more, endure until the twentieth year of Jinghui. When he revealed the edict and requested to be an idle prince, the Empress Dowager would naturally believe him.

Three years passed quickly, and when he left his mansion again, everything seemed unchanged.

When going to the teahouse to listen to music, he encountered Zhao Ruohua. She was still alone. Zhang Jingqing walked past her without even a glance.

He saw them people constantly watching Zhao Ruohua from not far away. He had seen them when he was small; they were Imperial Guards from the palace.

Without thinking, he knew they were being monitored.

The Chen family, the Zhao family, and the Prince’s mansion.

Zhang Jingqing suddenly felt somewhat disgusted by this suspicion and doubt.

When Chen Qijiang was expelled from the Chen family, Zhang Jingqing waited for him in a second-floor private room. He arrived as promised, as if nothing had happened.

This was their first meeting in four years.

“Now we finally don’t have to pretend not to know each other.” As soon as Chen Qijiang entered, he gulped down tea and laughed loudly: “Those in high positions with such suspicion and doubt will only make subjects lose heart.”

Zhang Jingqing hit him to make him shut up, careful that the walls have ears.

“After avoiding each other for four years, you still won’t let me talk to you?” Chen Qijiang glared at him and shut his mouth.

Zhang Jingqing asked about his plans. Chen Qijiang shrugged, answering casually that he would stay in the capital.

Zhao Ruohua was still in the capital.

Zhang Jingqing clinked cups with him and drained them in one gulp.

Zhang Jingqing wandered among various ministers for two years, killing four high officials who were fanning flames with malicious intent.

Chen Qijiang stayed in the capital, secretly protecting Zhao Ruohua and blocking several assassination attempts on her behalf.

If something happened to the women at home while the Zhao family men were fighting enemies abroad, the Zhao family army would surely fall into chaos.

In the winter of the nineteenth year of Jinghui, news of Zhao Cheng Ya’s death in battle reached the capital. Zhang Jingqing and Chen Qijiang rushed to the Zhao residence together, encountering Zhao Ruohua about to enter the palace to see the Empress Dowager. With a pale face, supported by her maid as she boarded the carriage, seeing the two of them, her eyes immediately reddened. Her voice trembling and hoarse, she said something Zhang Jingqing would never forget for the rest of his life.

She said, “The Zhao family is gone. I have no brother anymore.”

Zhang Jingqing and the other waited at the palace gate until dark before seeing Zhao Ruohua emerge. This was the first time in all these years that Zhao Ruohua had actively spoken to them. She leaned on Chen Qijiang’s shoulder and cried devastatingly.

She said she had seen Wan’er in the palace, punished to kneel and fall ill, thin and small, sitting alone in the vast palace hall, neither crying nor making noise, nor smiling.

Zhang Jingqing’s heart suddenly ached sharply. For several consecutive days, he dreamed of many years ago when she curled up in his arms, saying Wan’er could eat something else too.

He went to the palace gate several times, but the guards always stopped him outside. The Empress Dowager had ordered that Prince Huai’an could not enter the imperial palace without a summons.

Counting the time, there was only one year left. In one more year, he could produce the edict and tell the Empress Dowager that he had truly stayed in the capital for years because of the late Emperor’s command, and tell the Empress Dowager that he, Zhang Jingqing, absolutely had no treacherous heart.

One more year, and he could go to his fief and be the idle prince he had longed to be for nearly thirty years.

But many things happened in that year. The Emperor was assassinated, and it was Zhao Wan’er who was injured. When the Empress Dowager summoned him to the palace, and he was thinking how to explain to her that it wasn’t his doing, the Empress Dowager smiled.

“This dowager naturally knows it wasn’t you.”

“But this dowager wishes it had been you.”

Zhang Jingqing narrowed his eyes, crushed a teacup, and left with a flick of his sleeves.

On the day Zhao Wan’er awoke, Zhang Jingqing went to see her. She drowsily opened her eyes, looked at him for a long time, and said, “Ah Qing.”

He pressed his finger to her lips and shook his head, telling her she couldn’t let others know she remembered him, and said he would come to see her in a few months.

Seeing tears in her eyes, Zhang Jingqing picked up a candied fruit and put it in her mouth: “If this world were peaceful, you would become my wife.”

The day before forcing the palace, he went to find Chen Qijiang. This person was still guarding near the Zhao residence daily. They drank all night, both ending up like puddles of mud collapsed at the Zhao residence gate, carried inside by people Zhao Ruohua sent and thrown directly into the side room.

Deep in the night, Zhang Jingqing opened his eyes, lit a candle, and sat quietly for a long time. Getting up to find paper and brush, he wrote one sentence, felt it wasn’t good, and wrote another sheet. Before he knew it, dawn was almost breaking.

“No more paper.” A sudden voice startled Zhang Jingqing, ruining a sheet of paper. Looking up, he saw Chen Qijiang lazily leaning against the bed, watching him.

“When did you wake up?”

“I’ve been awake since you started writing the letter.”

The two were silent for a long time. Zhang Jingqing said he was going to rebel today.

Another silence.

The atmosphere was too oppressive. Zhang Jingqing looked down and smiled, trying to sound relaxed: “Forget it, don’t look so glum. After this, the Empress Dowager won’t suspect me of having different intentions anymore.”

“When I go to my fief, don’t forget to bring Ruohua to see me.”

Opening the door, he saw Zhao Ruohua standing at the entrance with tears streaming down her face.

Zhang Jingqing opened his mouth but ultimately said nothing. After walking a few steps, he stopped and dropped a “take care” before leaving again.

Zhang Jingqing led troops into the imperial palace. Before his eyes constantly floated the image of a small pink bundle scurrying around nearby, sometimes chasing butterflies, sometimes flying kites, with a bright and radiant smile on her face.

When he saw Zhao Wan’er, he realized she had grown quite beautiful.

Unlike last time, she wore an orange-yellow dress that pierced his heart with its brilliance.

He saw the confusion in her eyes, and also saw the sadness in her eyes when he asked if she wanted to marry him.

After eight years apart, she had become increasingly good at acting. If she hadn’t said his name before, he would have thought she truly didn’t remember him.

She asked him if he wanted to marry her because she was beautiful.

He nodded, suddenly remembering when she wasn’t yet five years old, he had called her an ugly child, and she cried the entire night until her eyes swelled like two walnuts.

From then on, he would always say: “Our Wan’er is beautiful.”

When the arrow entered his body, he saw the shock in her eyes and tears that were about to overflow. He pressed his finger to her lips and shook his head at her.

Zhang Jingqing felt his life had been truly boring. From childhood, he had a carefree and casual nature that didn’t compete with the world. Father Emperor didn’t favor him, and Mother Consort was angry that he didn’t strive. After the Father Emperor’s death, ministers were angry that he didn’t seize power.

In the previous generation’s fierce competition for favor, he had survived, but only he survived.

Everyone said the Third Prince had the bearing of a celestial being and should be made heir apparent. He noticed the inquiry and suspicion in Father Emperor’s eyes.

He had secretly read the posthumous edict – not only did the Empress Dowager want him dead, even the Father Emperor didn’t believe he truly had no designs on the throne. The day he revealed the edict would be the day of his granted death.

He never understood what was so good about that supreme position that so many people wanted to push him toward it.

He only wanted to be an idle prince, guarding his piece of fief land, finding a princess consort who loved to laugh and cry, having two children – one boy and one girl – and living an ordinary, peaceful life.

When he heard that Zhao Wan’er had blocked a blade for the Emperor, he knew he had lost that princess consort. She was different from before. He still remembered that year when he returned to the capital – a pink little bundle crashed into his arms on the snowy ground, with tears on her delicately carved face, forcefully smashing into his heart.

Was it love? Perhaps not.

Zhao Ruohua had said to raise Zhao Wan’er as his wife. He thought that if he could accompany a girl as she slowly grew up, that wouldn’t be bad either.

He still remembered the Emperor asking him: hiding his name and identity, leaving Great Qi by faking his death to become an ordinary person – would he be willing?

He smiled and asked in return: If I had seen the edict years earlier, would Your Majesty have believed I wouldn’t rebel?

The Emperor remained silent, and he also smiled. No one could use an entire empire as stakes.

He said, “Your Majesty, this is not his homeland.”

The Empress Dowager, having him raise troops in rebellion, was perhaps the best ending.

Trading his one life for the peace of mind of those in power – it was worth it.

Only there were some regrets in his heart.

Our Wan’er, I haven’t had the chance to play in the snow with you yet.