Volume One, Chapter 12: Has Your Highness Changed Your Mind?

Page (1/3)

Although his eyes were impaired, he vaguely noticed Jiang Zhinian’s reddened ears and the slight tremor in her pale neck caused by nervousness.

Though he clearly could not see, Jiang Zhinian felt that Lu Junyan was gazing through the thin veil and straight into her eyes. She took a small step back and lowered her gaze uneasily, unwilling to let him see through her.

“Miss Jiang.” Lu Junyan paused briefly before raising his slender hand. “This is what Her Majesty the Empress instructed me to give you.”

His hand remained raised. Jiang Zhinian had heard him, yet acted as though she had not, taking her time before accepting it.

“This is His Highness the Crown Prince’s jade pendant.” A faint shift passed through Lu Junyan’s eyes.

At those words, everyone turned to look. Even Jiang Zhinian was somewhat surprised. She lifted her eyes toward Lu Junyan, but he had already lost patience and tossed the pendant onto the table beside him.

“My business is finished. Let’s go, Yunchu.”

Jiang Zhinian watched Lu Junyan’s retreating figure, her emotions difficult to discern. Beside her, however, Jiang Ruozhen’s eyes had begun to sting.

The Crown Prince’s jade pendant!

She lowered her head and looked at the bolts of cloth she had received. Compared to that pendant, they seemed utterly ordinary.

But that blind man had said it was from Her Majesty the Empress. It must have been the Empress’s intention, not Huai’an’s.

At that thought, Jiang Ruozhen’s mood improved somewhat.

Jiang Zhinian carefully put away the jade pendant. She might have to return it sometime. The Empress had deliberately chosen this moment to give it to her, clearly intending to reassure her.

The Empress must have thought she would be upset by the Crown Prince’s favoritism.

In truth, that was not the case at all.

—

After leaving the Jiang residence, Lu Junyan boarded his carriage. Yunchu reminded him, “Young Master, His Highness clearly said that the jade pendant was to be given to the Second Miss of the Jiang family.”

“Oh? Did he? I seem to remember him saying the First Miss.” Lu Junyan feigned surprise.

Yunchu was long accustomed to his master’s habit of playing dumb. Her Majesty the Empress had indeed said that the jade pendant was to be given to the First Miss. However, she had instructed the Crown Prince to deliver it to the Jiang residence personally. The Crown Prince had refused to go and had asked Young Master Lu to make the trip in his place. He had also said that it should be given to the Second Miss.

“Didn’t His Highness say so himself? Although Her Majesty favors the First Miss, His Highness prefers the Second Miss. The Second Miss is innocent and carefree, and spending time with her is effortless. The First Miss, on the other hand, fawns upon the powerful…”

Lu Junyan set the empty teacup heavily on the table. His voice turned cold. “Yunchu, you must not speak recklessly of others.”

Especially not of a young lady.

Yet he had forgotten that only yesterday, he himself had spoken recklessly of her.

Jiang Zhinian fawning upon the powerful? He had never seen any sign of that. If she truly sought favor from the influential, she ought to have been delighted upon seeing the Crown Prince’s jade pendant.

Page (1/3)

Page (2/3)

“Why does she look so troubled…? Oh, that’s right. She was frightened of you.”

“His Highness does not wish to come himself and instead troubles Young Master, even though your eyes are inconvenient, and—”

“Nor may you speak recklessly of me.” Lu Junyan interrupted Yunchu.

Yunchu fell silent.

—

Every year, the princesses were responsible for copying the sacred scriptures. This year, the task had been assigned to Jiang Zhinian. If she were to copy them alone, it would certainly be an enormous undertaking.

There was still a month until New Year’s Eve. It was the season when the Jiang residence began preparing for the festival. At this time last year, Jiang Zhinian could only remain inside the residence, secretly envying everything Madam Jiang prepared for Jiang Ruozhen.

Madam Jiang had never remembered her, but Jiang Zhinian did not truly resent her for it.

During the dozen years Jiang Ruozhen had been absent, Madam Jiang had prepared everything for her. Now that she had returned, it was only right to give it all back.

The liveliness next door made the Pavilion of Glorious Radiance seem all the more desolate.

Jiang Ruoqi would even prepare firecrackers for Jiang Ruozhen. Back then, Jiang Zhinian would hide behind the pavilion’s door and listen in secret. She was like a thief caught stealing, watching their happiness after returning the things she had taken.

Before others, she was as sensible and well-behaved as could be. In private, she was just as fragile.

But this year—

Jiang Zhinian set down the warming brazier and picked up her brush. Candlelight illuminated her face as she began copying the scriptures stroke by stroke, with the same concentration she had once shown while practicing calligraphy late at night.

Perhaps the scripture repository was well supplied with charcoal. Or perhaps, compared with being frozen to death beneath the heavy snow in her previous life, the cold she felt now was simply insignificant.

Outside, the winter wind howled. Only her fingertips felt slightly chilled.

Within the vast scripture repository, she was the sole occupant, sitting upright at the very front, her skirt spread across the floor.

“Jiang Zhinian?”

The voice echoed through the spacious inner chamber.

Jiang Zhinian turned her head. A figure dressed in bright yellow stood before her. She rose and bowed.

“This humble daughter, Jiang Zhinian, greets Your Highness the Crown Prince.”

“It really is you.” Shen Huai’an’s tone was icy. “Why are you in the palace?”

Even if Jiang Zhinian wanted to marry him, there was no need for her to come running to the palace every day. Was she truly so impatient to throw herself before him?

He had always despised women who clung to him in such a manner.

Jiang Zhinian revealed the desk behind her. “In answer to Your Highness, I came to the scripture repository to copy the sacred texts.”

Page (2/3)

Page (3/3)

Shen Huai’an examined her, then looked behind her. Sure enough, he saw the scriptures she had already copied.

“And why has Your Highness come here?” Jiang Zhinian could tell that the Crown Prince disliked her, but she felt not the slightest sorrow. Everyone around her favored Jiang Ruozhen; she had long grown accustomed to it.

Besides, in the past, when Jiang Zhinian had fawned over and sought to please Shen Huai’an, it had merely been like a subject currying favor with a ruler. It was nothing more than the etiquette and maneuvering of official circles. It did not mean she had truly liked him.

Shen Huai’an’s eyes gleamed with shrewdness, as though he had already seen through Jiang Zhinian’s “scheme.”

“Why I am here? Surely you know.”

What nonsense.

If she knew, why would she ask?

Jiang Zhinian was utterly bewildered. The look she cast at Shen Huai’an was difficult to describe.

Shen Huai’an let out a cold laugh. “You really have gone to great lengths. Did you deliberately enter the palace to copy scriptures so that you could approach me?”

He had no idea what kind of spell Jiang Zhinian had cast over his mother. She had actually persuaded the Empress to act as a matchmaker and insist that he come to the scripture repository to copy scriptures as well.

He approached Jiang Zhinian, his gaze sweeping over her like a blade—from her hair and forehead to her nose and lips. His expression was mocking, but the amusement never reached his eyes.

Leaning close to her, Shen Huai’an said coldly beside her ear, “Copy as much as you please. I will not write a single word.”

With that, he recoiled as though he had touched something filthy. He took a hurried step back, then pushed open the scripture repository’s towering red doors and swept away.

The red doors slammed shut.

Shen Huai’an imagined that Jiang Zhinian was probably about to burst into tears inside. He gave a cold snort.

She wanted to marry him? What a delusion!

…

Inside the scripture repository.

Only after Shen Huai’an had gone far away did Jiang Zhinian brush at the dust that was not even on her shoulder.

Her expression unchanged, she sat down and continued copying the scriptures, as though nothing had happened.

From the Crown Prince’s words, it seemed that the Empress had intended to bring the two of them together and had sent him here as well. Unfortunately, her efforts had produced the opposite result, making the Crown Prince believe that Jiang Zhinian was determined to pester him.

The ink in the inkstone had run dry. Jiang Zhinian rolled up her sleeve and was about to grind more ink when a sudden gust of cold wind swept in from behind, scattering the warmth of the inner chamber.

Realizing that the door behind her had been opened once more, she sighed faintly. Could the Crown Prince have forgotten something? She would have to deal with Shen Huai’an again.

“Your Highness, have you changed your mind?”