“It’s over.” On the way back, Wang Yongxu was full of pessimism, as if she had foreseen her fate. “The letter was taken by Young Master Xie. I’m doomed.”
Cheng Danruo said, “What are you afraid of? In a moment, you’ll confess to the princess and say you were unsuccessful in your task and the item was discovered and taken away by Young Master Xie – but say it was your own family letter. Young Master Xie confiscated it on the grounds that private letters may not be passed along.”
Wang Yongxu said, “Sister, don’t try to fool me. Either way it’s a failure – the charge of losing a letter is far too serious.”
“Would the princess dare to say anything?” Cheng Danruo said. “You’ve already done your best, haven’t you?”
Wang Yongxu thought it over but still wasn’t coaxed past it. She said solemnly, “You came along specially today – was it because you had this plan all along, to get the letter into Young Master Xie’s hands?”
Cheng Danruo looked at her and smiled. “Yes.”
“Why?”
“Why does the princess resent you? Because you’re the rival she imagines. What you call your illness is utterly irrelevant in her eyes. As long as she believes you might marry Young Master Xie, or that he might be interested in you, similar incidents will never end.”
Wang Yongxu asked, “And giving it to Young Master Xie will solve it once and for all?”
“Do you want to hear the truth?” Cheng Danruo asked.
Wang Yongxu replied, “Of course.”
“No.”
Wang Yongxu: “…”
“Xie Xuanying is an upright gentleman. He won’t betray us, nor will he open the letter -he’ll only return it personally to Princess Rong’an.” Cheng Danruo said slowly. “Guess how the princess will feel?”
Wang Yongxu froze, her scalp tingling.
“She’ll be hurt,” Cheng Danruo said calmly. “No matter how she tries to argue that you were secretly carrying on an affair, Xie Xuanying won’t believe it – he knows who sent you to deliver the letter. That alone is enough.”
To be mistaken by the one you love for having given your heart to another – that kind of pain is the most tormenting for a girl in love.
“San-niang, if you’re willing to risk everything, you dare to drag the emperor from his horse.” She smiled faintly. “Don’t you think this is more satisfying?”
Wang Yongxu bit her lip, and for a moment she didn’t know how to answer.
Satisfying? Of course it was satisfying. Compared to pretending nothing had happened and going back to confess her failure, this was refreshing and exhilarating – but beyond the satisfaction, she also felt fear.
What would the princess do?
Would she suffer even crueler revenge?
Would this matter implicate the Wang family?
“It was only a joke.” Cheng Danruo didn’t miss her pale face and smoothly brushed it aside. “Actually, you have no other choice. Once you came to the Library Pavilion, this matter definitely can’t be kept hidden – His Majesty will certainly find out. Just now, I saw people from the Eastern Depot.”
Wang Yongxu drew a sharp breath and understood. “I really am foolish. His Majesty cares so much about the choice of consort that he must have ordered people to watch carefully. If the princess denies it outright then, my troubles will be great.”
At this point, she couldn’t help but think one layer deeper.
Had the princess… been planning this all along?
“Once the item is handed to Young Master Xie, your part in this is over,” Cheng Danruo analyzed. “Right now, go explain the situation to the Palace Matron as soon as possible. The Palace Matron will protect you.”
As long as Wang Yongxu admitted to dereliction of duty and the Directorate of Palace Discipline punished her first, the emperor wouldn’t make things difficult for a female official.
What he cared about more, surely, was his own daughter.
Would he grant a marriage to Young Master Yu?
What would Princess Rong’an do? Could she settle down after this, learn that human lives are not toys in her hands, and stop causing trouble?
The early autumn sky was utterly clear, bright blue and radiant.
Cheng Danruo closed her eyes. The sunlight beat against her temples, warm to the point of burning.
The scene of Huang’er pouncing on her surfaced in her mind again.
She opened her eyes and thought: Wang Yongxu has taken the loss and accepted it. I will not.
So what if she’s a royal princess? You’re human too. You feel pain.
Xie Xuanying had confiscated Wang Yongxu’s letter, and he breathed a great sigh of relief.
He was also somewhat annoyed – Wang San-niang was truly a nuisance. She caused trouble herself and insisted on dragging Dan-niang into it. If Dan-niang hadn’t known to come to him for help, who knows what might have happened. Was a princess’s consort something to be casually entangled with?
So stupid.
But after finishing his mental complaints, Xie Xuanying thought of what Cheng Danruo had said again.
The contents were strange?
The letter was intact – how did Dan-niang know?
He mulled it over and decided to go see Rong’an that afternoon.
In the palace, meeting someone secretly while avoiding watchful eyes was as difficult as reaching the sky, but if one didn’t fear being noticed, meeting at the small garden behind Qingning Palace was not difficult at all.
Xie Xuanying directly summoned a young eunuch from Qianyang Palace and told him to pass along a message.
Say that he wished to speak a few words with the princess, and for her to come to the small garden gate that afternoon.
Fifteen minutes later, Eunuch Shi tiptoed into the Hall of Light and whispered these words into the emperor’s ear.
The emperor couldn’t help but laugh. “They really are siblings who grew up together.” He thought for a moment and said, “Let them meet. That’s good too – it saves Rong’an from holding a knot in her heart toward me and refusing to speak frankly. When I asked her earlier what she thought of Young Master Yu, she hemmed and hawed.”
“Your Majesty is wise,” Eunuch Shi said with a smile. “The princess and Young Master Xie are first cousins by blood. The bond of siblings can never be severed.”
These words struck right at the emperor’s heart. He had no sons and regarded Xie Xuanying as his own child. Though Rong’an was willful and the two children could hardly avoid awkwardness, being able to speak openly and return to supporting each other as siblings was also what he wished to see.
“You go listen,” he said, dispatching his chief attendant to eavesdrop. “Come back and tell me.”
Eunuch Shi bent at the waist. “Yes.”
In the afternoon, a gentle breeze blew, and the faint fragrance of osmanthus could be detected.
Xie Xuanying stood under the cool eaves and glanced at the senior eunuch in python robes behind the door. He lifted his chin.
Eunuch Shi smiled and retreated two steps, standing where he could not make out specific words but could still see clearly, then pointed at the ground beneath his feet, indicating he could not move farther away.
Xie Xuanying had no choice but to let him eavesdrop.
“Cousin.” Princess Rong’an lightly crossed the winding corridor, like a chirping bird, her expression joyful yet shy. “Why did you suddenly call for me?”
Xie Xuanying said, “Among the candidates for consort, do you have any in mind?”
Princess Rong’an turned her face away. “Must we talk about this?”
“I’m on duty today. Whatever you want to do, I can handle it for you.” He had said similar words to Cheng Danruo last time, though that time he hadn’t even known what he was saying. This time, however, he genuinely wanted to vet them for her.
Xie Xuanying pondered. “Find a beautiful palace maid and test whether they’re susceptible to lust? Or find a pitiful eunuch and see whether they have a kind heart?”
Princess Rong’an looked at him and burst out laughing. “Cousin, really! Father Emperor already knows these people’s character inside and out. If any were no good, how could they have remained until today?”
“Is that so?” Xie Xuanying said irritably, pulling out the letter. “Then what is this?”
Princess Rong’an’s smile froze.
“Records Supervisor Wang deliberately tried to strike up a conversation with Young Master Yu and then tried to cover up her panic. I noticed it.” Just as Cheng Danruo had said, Xie Xuanying did not betray them and took all the blame onto himself. “It was you who had her pass it along, wasn’t it?”
“That’s not true.” Princess Rong’an hurried to defend herself. “How could I…” She steadied herself and said, “Did Records Supervisor Wang say that? She – how could she? I don’t even admire Young Master Yu. If anything, it’s her – she quite likes Young Master Yu’s literary talent.”
Xie Xuanying frowned.
He looked at the letter in his hand, and after a long while, said slowly, “Rong’an, this is the Ningxia purple-leaf peach from your palace. There is no such flower in the imperial garden.”
“She picked it in my palace,” Princess Rong’an said. “I have always thought highly of her. What’s strange about that?”
“Rong’an!” Xie Xuanying’s tone grew heavier. “This flower blooms in March. When it bloomed, the female officials had only just entered the palace. I’m afraid Records Supervisor Wang had not yet taken up her post at Xiefang Palace.”
Because Cheng Danruo had entered the palace, he was not uninformed about this cohort of female officials and was quite certain. “You are lying to me.”
Princess Rong’an’s delicate, lovely face finally could not hold itself together. “So what if I am?”
“You and I are as close as siblings. What is it that you couldn’t ask me to do, that you had to order a female official to do such a thing? When writing falls into the hands of outsiders, it is ultimately unseemly.”
In truth, Xie Xuanying was not blaming her for testing them, but felt she had handled it poorly. “Let it be this time.”
He took out a fire striker and, in front of her, burned the intact letter.
Princess Rong’an watched the snow-white paper turn to ash and pressed her lips together without speaking.
“Was it Young Master Yu?” he softened his tone. “I entered the palace early this morning and have already seen him. He is a good man.”
Just a little dull.
But for a consort, being a little dull was not bad at all. Young Master Han was simply too clever.
Princess Rong’an stared at him. “Do you really think he’s good?”
“Whoever I and His Majesty think is good cannot compare to you thinking that person is good.”
Princess Rong’an turned her face away, but could not help asking, “What if I still think you are better?”
“Rong’an, my kindness to you is the same as to my sisters at home,” Xie Xuanying said. “You have no brothers and mistook my kindness for something else, but I know it is not.”
Princess Rong’an was silent for a moment, then slowly shook her head. “I have liked you and have never changed.”
Xie Xuanying frowned.
“What a pity that you do not like me.” She murmured to herself, “Who do you like? Records Supervisor Wang?”
Xie Xuanying: “You’re overthinking it.”
“You are truly unfair.” Princess Rong’an regained some of her girlish playfulness. “You refuse to tell me the truth, yet you want me to tell you the truth? If you want to know who I favor, you must return the courtesy.”
Xie Xuanying was immediately troubled.
He absolutely could not say Cheng Danruo’s name, but to make up a person and deceive his own cousin would completely violate his principles.
After thinking it over, he could only say, “A woman like Zhu Yingtai.”
Dan-niang had once disguised herself as a man to save someone, so it was not a lie.
Princess Rong’an did not miss his seriousness. After a brief silence, she suddenly smiled. “You have only told half. That doesn’t count.”
Xie Xuanying looked helpless.
“The consort… whoever can answer Father Emperor’s question will be the consort.” Princess Rong’an said, “You can rest easy now, right?”
Eunuch Shi tiptoed into the Hall of Light.
The emperor had just risen from his afternoon rest and was drinking tea to wake himself as usual. Seeing him, he smiled. “Why were you gone so long?”
Eunuch Shi knelt with a smile and put on the emperor’s boots. “I deserves death for making Your Majesty wait so long.”
“Don’t be glib. Speak.” The emperor gestured for the palace maids to withdraw and gathered his focus. “What happened with Rong’an?”
Eunuch Shi then explained the matter in careful detail, adding, “Records Supervisor Wang, knowing her conduct had been remiss, returned to the Bureau of Palace Administration to confess to Palace Matron Hong. The Palace Matron summoned Director Pan, saying she had failed to counsel the princess and that her dereliction of duty was grave. She was sentenced to five days of bell-carrying and to copy the Admonitions for Women twenty times.”
“Wang Houwen’s granddaughter…” The emperor shook his head. Though he was somewhat displeased, the Directorate of Palace Discipline had punished her appropriately, so there was nothing more to say. He changed the subject. “It was a letter to Second Young Master Yu? San-lang burned it?”
“Yes. Young Master Xie said the princess had acted rashly and burned it in front of her,” Eunuch Shi said.
“San-lang still does things thoroughly.” The emperor praised him, then asked, “Are you certain it was Young Master Yu?”
Eunuch Shi shook his head slightly. “The princess did not admit it.”
The emperor frowned.
Eunuch Shi observed the emperor’s expression and ventured, “From my observation of the princess’s demeanor, she did not seem to be lying.”
The emperor concentrated in thought, momentarily unable to decide.
