Chapter 21: The Wedding Date Is Set

The night was deep and heavy with dew. A black cat leaped from the roof of Yuhua Pavilion onto the silkwood tree outside, then followed the perimeter wall until it reached the gates of the Zichen Palace. After several failed attempts, the cat finally scrambled onto the palace wall.

Inside Yuhua Pavilion, Xia Qiqi was applying medicinal ointment to Chuntao’s wounds. She had never imagined that Chu Hanxiao’s men would actually resort to torture against her maid! The reason was simple: Chuntao had insisted until her final breath that on that night at the Anzhou post house, the woman Prince Jin, Chu Hanxiao, had carried into the room was indeed Liu Mingyu, the legitimate daughter of the Prime Minister’s estate. Furthermore, she maintained that Liu Mingyu’s carriage had been served by no one but herself from beginning to end, with no sign of the female shadow guard they had been desperately hunting.

Looking at the lash marks on Chuntao’s back, Xia Qiqi nearly ground her teeth to dust. She had once thought the man with those soul-captivating eyes was a peerless beauty, but she had never expected him to be the violent and arrogant Prince Jin, Chu Hanxiao. Had she known Chuntao would be beaten like this, she would have let the world call her heartless rather than saving A-Chi. Because of her own negligence, she had nearly caused the death of the person who truly cared for her.

Watching the pale-faced Chuntao, Xia Qiqi felt a sharp pang of heartache. "Chuntao, bear with it. This medicine is potent, but it won’t leave scars."

"Mm, it doesn't hurt, Miss," Chuntao replied, even as she bit her lip until her fingernails dug into her palms, drawing blood. She asked again, "Miss, do you really intend to become the Princess Consort of Jin?"

Do it? How could she not? She had already caught a glimpse of Chu Hanxiao’s ruthlessness and power. Even if she could successfully spirit Chuntao and Xiao Ai out of the Prince Jin’s mansion, she might not even make it out of Jin City. Since her arrival, she had been observing the main roads and the overt and covert guards at the city gates. Her eyes told her that under the rule of that spymaster, Jin City was as impenetrable as an iron bucket. Right now, Xia Qiqi was a nobody; she didn't even have the qualifications to run away.

Xia Qiqi offered a faint smile and replied, "I will. Since he wants me to do it, then I shall."

Chuntao was still shaken. "But, the Prince..."

Xia Qiqi gently smoothed the ointment over Chuntao’s back, soothing her softly, "It’s fine. No matter how cruel he is, he must still show some face to the Liu family."

Since she lacked the power to achieve her dreams for now, she would have to lay low and survive.

[Meow! Xia Qiqi! I’m back!]

Just as she set down the ointment, Xiao Ai darted into the side hall where Chuntao stayed.

"Xiao Ai, where have you been? You're so filthy!" Xia Qiqi picked up the cat and noticed several patches of grime on its white fur.

[I risked being caught to go to Zichen Palace and gather intelligence for you!]

[Big things have happened in the palace. The Crown Prince's only heir has passed away, and the Crown Princess has fallen gravely ill.]

[Because of this, the Emperor rejected the Prince’s request to postpone the wedding. The Empress even issued a special decree demanding that Prince Jin marry as soon as possible to ensure the continuation of the imperial line.]

No wonder he demanded she marry him in three days!

[But that’s not the important part. The important part is that Liu Mingyu’s close friend, the Emperor’s fifth daughter, Princess Zhaoyang, Chu Hanshuang, is coming to witness the ceremony!]

Chu Hanshuang? Xia Qiqi recalled that Liu Mingyu often spoke in the Prime Minister’s estate about how close she and Princess Zhaoyang were. But as a low-level maid, Xia Qiqi had never even seen the Princess. She didn't even know what she looked like. If the Princess truly came to observe, she would surely discover that Xia Qiqi was a fake the moment they met!

[Xia Qiqi! Even more importantly, Nanny Jingfang, who serves the Empress, is also coming to Jin City!]

Who was that? Why were so many people coming all at once? The old matriarch and Nanny Ning were already enough to deal with in the mansion, and now these threats were piling up!

[Based on what I heard from Steward Wen, Nanny Jingfang is coming to collect your "white silk of joy!"]

Xia Qiqi felt a headache coming on. "A virginity cloth? What on earth is that?"

[Cough, it’s that thing used to catch the blood on the wedding night!]

Oh, so that was it! The ultimate prop of palace dramas—she hadn't even known it was called a "virginity cloth."

Even before the wedding, the urge to run away flared up in her mind again! But then she looked at Chuntao lying on the bed, and at the mud-stained Xiao Ai... Xia Qiqi had to force the thought of escape to die in her mind.

If that Princess Zhaoyang came to watch, she probably wouldn't be standing very close. Xia Qiqi just needed to paint her makeup to look a bit more like the original and use a partially obscuring silk fan; surely, it wouldn't be easy for the princess to spot the ruse. She just needed a good excuse to avoid close contact with the princess after the wedding.

It was the white silk that worried her. As someone with a background in modern medicine, she knew full well that not every virgin bled on her first night. She had no guarantee that this body would produce the "evidence" required on the wedding night.

Three days until the wedding. Regardless, Xia Qiqi had to find a way to survive the wedding night! But the mere thought of sharing a bed with the brutal Prince Jin made her feel that dying might be a better option.

...

The end of the year was approaching. The streets and alleys of Jin City were decorated with lanterns, and many wealthy families had already hung red lanterns under their eaves.

Chu Hanxiao stared at the small painting on his desk, lost in thought. The painting captured the scene on the roof of the Prime Minister’s estate where he had first encountered that woman. In the painting, she had bright eyes and white teeth, her elfin gaze flashing with a cunning smile, dressed in black night clothes that clung to her lithe, shapely figure.

Yet, as Chu Hanxiao held it closer, he felt it was both like her and not. The real woman seemed more spirited than the one in the painting, the black in her eyes far deeper.

Still as a maiden, swift as a hare! That was it—he had captured her stillness, but not her movement. After a moment's thought, Chu Hanxiao added a few strokes to the painting and stepped back to look.

Indeed, this was the complete version of her! A faint smile touched Chu Hanxiao’s lips. Satisfied, he set down his brush and hung the painting in the most prominent spot in his study.

"Knock, knock."

Wen Shizhi tapped gently on the door. This was their agreed signal.

"Your Highness."

Wen Shizhi looked at the window of the study with some confusion; the lamp was clearly lit, yet there was no sound from within.

"Knock, knock."

"Your Highness," Wen Shizhi knocked again, "news from the palace."

Inside, Chu Hanxiao, who had been staring at the painting on the wall, seemed to finally hear him. "Shizhi, come in."

Wen Shizhi pushed open the door and his eyes immediately landed on the small painting.

"Your Highness, this is...?" He vaguely guessed that the person in the painting must be the one Chu Hanxiao had been searching for so desperately.

"Her."

"Her?"

Chu Hanxiao felt a slight bitterness in his heart. "I don't even know her name."