Returning to that morning when the imperial edict was announced, in the Hall of Diligent Governance—
Xie Yu was spacing out.
Her mind kept looping like a broken disc: marry marry marry… marry marry marry…
She didn't even notice when Shen Changyin left.
The food-distribution squad leader from earlier fetched a carriage, loaded the princesses inside, and escorted them back to their palaces one by one.
It wasn't until the squad leader said "We're here" that Xie Yu snapped out of it.
She got out, only to be stopped by the Second Princess. The other princesses filed out too, lining up by age in front of her.
Xie Yu finally realized — the squad leader had deliberately taken a detour to deliver her first.
The Eldest Princess, in lake-blue robes, stepped forward and patted her shoulder. "I know you haven't accepted Mother Empress's marriage decree yet. That Regent Queen… sigh. In any case, take care."
The Second Princess in red robes came next. "In the future, when you're in Shen Changyin's bedchamber, sigh… take care. I have many doctors skilled in treating… bedchamber ailments. I can lend them to you."
The Fourth Princess walked forward stiffly. "Thank you, Third Sister, for sacrificing yourself to feed the tiger. Take care."
Princess Five, Six, and Seven: "Take care."
Why was everyone acting like she was departing on a doomed heroic mission, never to return?
Xie Yu forced a laugh. "May you all break your legs."
Back in her courtyard, she was unsurprised to find a small squad of former rebels — now soldiers of the Wei-Yong Army — stationed outside with red sashes.
Fine.
Shen Changyin, you control freak.
She returned to her room.
As an almost-eighteen-year-old model student, who had never dated, never even flirted, and had never finished a single full romance drama… now betrothed to an older, dangerous woman… Xie Yu expected herself to stop eating, stop drinking, waste away in melancholy.
But soon she discovered… she was hungry.
Her palace had a small kitchen. Determined to maintain the spirit of "heartbroken, unable to eat," she ordered only a small bowl of rice for lunch.
The kitchen forcibly delivered to her: a bowl of rock-sugar braised pork knuckle, a plate of stir-fried eggs with Chinese toon, a creamy tofu-fish soup, and glutinous rice red-bean dumplings.
She ate everything.
As night fell, her sorrow slowly washed over her like the deepening sky.
But dinner was lotus-root braised ribs, crispy fried tenderloin, chilled shredded trio salad, and a bowl of century-egg lean-meat congee.
She ate everything.
After eating, still feeling melancholy, she opened her window and casually said to the young soldier standing guard outside:
"Master, please enlighten me and dispel my sorrow."
The soldier jumped, sword flashing out instinctively, then realized she wasn't escaping and sheathed it coldly.
She had watched Xie Yu eat all day, seeing every dish brought in and cleared out. "If this is how you eat when you're sad, then how much do you eat when you're not?"
Xie Yu studied the soldier's facial traits, estimated the recessive genes involved, then suddenly asked:
"That squad leader who served us food in the hall — what's your relation to her?"
"Do not speak to me. You're being guarded." The soldier stiffened. "That's my mother."
"Her pork really is delicious. Very fragrant."
"Thank you. Out of the eight villages near us, my mother raises the best pigs."
The soldier answered reflexively, then realized—
"Do not talk to me!"
Xie Yu muttered, "I don't want to marry your Regent."
She had lived eighteen years without romance, without ambiguity, without a single completed drama.
"If I had known this would happen, I shouldn't have saved her last night. She and I are incompatible."
"You and the Regent are not incompatible!" The soldier, clearly a devout admirer of Shen Changyin, defended her indignantly. "She suits you perfectly!"
Xie Yu slammed the window shut, puffing with frustration.
"Don't you think about escaping. Stay right here and wait to marry our Regent."
Xie Yu was locked inside. Patting her stomach and finding herself no longer full, she sat on her bed, frowning.
She lay down, thinking, Tonight will surely be a long, sleepless night…
Unfortunately, the moment her head touched the pillow, she fell asleep and didn't wake until dawn — refreshed, energized, in perfect health.
She slapped her leg, opened the door, marched up to the soldier.
"I think you were wrong. She's bad, I'm good. How exactly do we match?"
"She lies, and she doesn't even spare children!"
Xie Yu was about to passionately condemn Shen Changyin, when she suddenly heard a chorus of little voices
"Sister! Sister! Sister! Sister!"
She was startled by the noise. When she turned her head, she saw that the hawk-eyed, broad-shouldered woman under Shen Changyin's command had brought a group of children into the courtyard.
Xie Yu's eyes widened, her mouth curving into an involuntary grin.
"How did you all get here?!"
She hurried forward, checking each child one by one—looking for injuries, checking whether their clothes were dry, and if their lips were cracked.
"They wanted to take me home, but I wanted to see you first!" Cao Zhenzhu blurted out an answer quickly.
The children all spoke at once.
"They gave us candy!"
"I ate meat!"
"I slept on a fire-heated bed, it was so warm!" — this meant she slept on a heated brick bed.
Xie Yu was listening with a bright smile when the hawk-eyed woman suddenly let out a cold snort through her nose.
At that moment Xie Yu suddenly remembered how she had cursed Shen Changyin that night—calling her scum, saying she had no morals, saying she'd lost all conscience, that she deserved to be called a demon…
But in truth, Shen Changyin really had only wanted to send the children home.
Her face grew hotter and hotter.
She was rarely embarrassed, but she was now.
But she quickly recovered.
After all, that night Shen Changyin had misled her, and her words had steered Xie Yu to misunderstand!
Her confidence immediately returned. "Lead the way. I'm going to negotiate with Shen Changyin!"
—
In the old Chancellor's residence, now converted into a training yard.
Xie Yu had barely stepped over the threshold when she saw Shen Changyin holding a crossbow, aiming at a distant target. Her arm was perfectly straight, her sleeves hanging down lightly and swaying.
Shen Changyin could use a crossbow?
Suddenly a strong wind swept through, sand and grit flying everywhere. The onlookers instinctively raised their arms to cover their eyes.
But the woman holding the crossbow simply lowered her lashes. Her arm did not move in the slightest. The crossbow seemed like an extension of her own body—steady, loyal—launching the bolt straight into the red bullseye.
When the wind died and the dust settled, the soldiers at the training field saw ten arrows sunk into the center of the target. They couldn't help cheering.
Shen Changyin set the crossbow down on the table. In a good mood, she wiped her hands with a white towel. When she turned around, she saw Xie Yu.
"Third Princess, it seems you've already seen those children. I am a 'heartless monster'. If I handled anything poorly, I ask Third Princess… to show mercy."
She walked forward and stopped half a meter from Xie Yu.
Xie Yu's face heated up again. She spoke quietly.
"The children were all taken good care of. That night, it was your words that misled me into thinking you meant them harm. But still, insulting you like that was my fault. I'm sorry."
Apologizing did not stop her from going straight to the point.
"But I will not marry you."
Shen Changyin's lips gradually straightened. She stared at Xie Yu for a long time without speaking.
Xie Yu tried to reason with her.
"To be honest, I don't understand you."
"You don't like me. And even if you wanted revenge for the two times I wronged you—cursing you, and pointing an arrow at you—you shouldn't use marriage as the price."
"You should marry someone you admire, someone who returns your affection, not waste a marriage on revenge."
Shen Changyin said: "Since Third Princess understands marriage so well, does that mean you have someone you like?"
"What? No. What does that have to do with anything?"
Xie Yu insisted, "The point is, why would you throw away a marriage on someone as unimportant as me."
Shen Changyin suddenly smiled, as if genuinely amused.
"Third Princess, how could you be unimportant?"
"Your surname is Xie. The Xie family has been emperor for thirty generations. This empire barely remembers a time when anyone else ruled."
Xie Yu: "So?"
"In this world, less than ten percent of marriages are for love. The rest are for something else."
Arrows flew in the distance as soldiers shot another round, dozens of shafts streaking across the sky like rain.
Xie Yu said, "So you just want a princess of the Xie family. Someone who represents reconciliation between you and the Empress. A tool with royal blood and inheritance rights."
"Then why me specifically?"
Shen Changyin's eyes curved. She had once asked herself the same question—why her, of all people?
She said softly, "Because our birth charts match. We are a fated pair."
Shen Changyin believed in fortune-telling?
She might as well say Xie Yu is the Empress.
Xie Yu didn't believe that answer and waited.
Shen Changyin lowered her head and let out a small laugh.
"I can't help it. You just had to hold my hand that night."
Xie Yu knew she shouldn't have saved her!
She took a deep breath. Seeing the look in Shen Changyin's eyes, she knew the other woman would never change her mind.
Suddenly, she smiled brightly.
"Alright. I'm going back now. Wait for you to come get me for the wedding."
She said it lightly, then turned and left.
—
That night.
"I'm not waiting! Why would I wait! I'm not waiting for you!"
Xie Yu silently slipped past the guarding soldiers, climbed over the courtyard wall, and headed toward the Cold Palace district as if she had done this a hundred times. She had a stolen knife strapped to her back.
As she ran, she would suddenly let out a cold little laugh.
Heh.
This time, no matter how beautiful a woman she met, no matter what danger that woman was in, she absolutely would not save her again.
She ran to the entrance of the river tunnel. Taking advantage of the night, she loosened her wrists and ankles and was about to jump down when the sky suddenly lit up like daytime.
"Third Princess, weren't you waiting for me to come fetch you for the wedding? Where might you be going?"
A familiar, persistent voice sounded.
Xie Yu's face sank immediately as she turned around.
Nearly a hundred soldiers wielding torches and drawn blades had surrounded her. Shen Changyin walked forward from the center, holding a delicate lantern.
Xie Yu said, "I never told you the river passage connects to the palace on the other end."
Shen Changyin replied, "A princess who hasn't left the palace in seventeen years suddenly knowing about an abandoned river tunnel where someone can hide—its origin isn't hard to guess."
"And you even left me a note." Shen Changyin took a crumpled piece of paper from her sleeve and began reading it in Xie Yu's exact tone.
"'I will never, ever, ever ever ever marry you.'"
Xie Yu: "I meant it."
She said calmly but with firm conviction.
"You can try. See how much trouble a princess as your wife can cause for you aside from giving you power."
Shen Changyin: "You would rather both sides lose?"
Xie Yu: "I would rather die, as long as you die too."
"That won't do. I'm marrying for benefits." Shen Changyin tapped the handle of the lantern with her slender finger. Her fingertip pressed softly against the wood. "But I also can't simply cancel the engagement."
"How about we make a bet?" The young Regent's eyes glinted. "The engagement banquet is one month away. In that month, you may attempt to escape at any time, and I will delay my pursuit by half a day."
"If you manage to run away, you will be free."
"If, within this month, you fail to escape…"
Xie Yu: "Then I'll marry you."
"Shall we seal it with a palm strike?" Shen Changyin extended her hand, tilting her head slightly. A strand of hair slid down one side of her face, and as she raised her hand, a faint herbal fragrance drifted out.
For a moment, Xie Yu felt this person might be a little too beautiful.
Keeping her expression stiff, she reached out and brushed her palm against Shen Changyin's pale hand.
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