When Lin Lin woke the next morning, Xiao Fusu was nowhere to be seen.
She sat up and looked at the empty space beside her on the bed. For some reason, a faint sense of loss washed over her.
She let out a quiet sigh.
Hearing the sound, several palace servants entered the hall moments later.
“Now that you’re awake, miss, let us help you wash and dress.”
After sleeping, she felt somewhat better, though she was still weak and had little strength.
Considering her current fragile state, she accepted her situation and nodded. “Thank you—I’ll need your help.”
With that, she allowed them to assist her with dressing, washing, and tidying the bed.
Afterward, a pretty young servant girl led her to a dressing table and sat her down to style her hair in a coiffure befitting a palace lady.
Finally, she pinned a green jade hairpin in place and applied light makeup, leaving Lin Lin looking refreshed and elegant, with a healthier glow to her face.
“You’re truly beautiful, miss—no wonder His Highness treats you so specially.”
The servant girl styling her hair looked at her reflection in the mirror and spoke with genuine admiration.
Dressed in an elegant light blue gown with intricate traditional patterns, her hair arranged in a palace style and her face lightly made up, she did look rather like a woman from ancient times.
Looking at her own delicate features in the mirror, Lin Lin felt a moment of disorientation.
“By the way—where did he go?”
Thinking of him, she asked the servant behind her, concern touching her eyes.
But the girl shook her head gently with a soft smile. “We servants aren’t permitted to ask about His Highness the Crown Prince’s whereabouts.”
Lin Lin felt a pang of disappointment.
Having grown used to being with him these past two days, waking up to find him gone without a word left her feeling unsettled—as if her newly steady heart had lost its anchor.
“Hehe—if you’re that concerned about His Highness, why not ask him yourself when he returns?”
Seeing her downcast expression, the servant girl chuckled kindly and offered the suggestion.
Lin Lin sighed quietly and nodded.
She supposed she would have to wait for his return to ask him.
Meanwhile, after the morning court session, Xiao Fusu went straight to the Kunning Palace.
“Mother—you sent for me?”
Entering the hall, he saw his mother standing with her back to him by the window, as if she had been waiting for some time. He called out softly to her.
At the sound of his voice, Empress Zhang Miaoli turned and hurried to his side, taking his hands in hers. “You foolish boy—only a day since I last saw you, and you’ve already done something reckless again!”
Her eyes were full of concern, though her words carried a note of gentle reproach. “It’s barely two years since the Emperor named you Crown Prince. Can’t you curb that wild, unruly nature of yours and learn from how Xiao Keyu used to be?”
At the mention of Xiao Keyu, Xiao Fusu’s mood soured instantly.
He gently pulled his hands free, his voice listless. “Why must you bring him up again? Do you like him so much? Then why not bring him out of the Cold Palace and make him your son instead?”
“You ungrateful child! Everything I do is for your own good—so why must you always contradict me? You’ve been Crown Prince for two years now. I tell you to learn from him because your father favored his mannerisms. We didn’t come by all this easily—we spent so much effort to get where we are today. If you don’t win your father’s favor, will you let all our hard work be for nothing? Stop being so hotheaded and fond of fighting—act with more grace and composure. That’s what a Crown Prince should be like!”
Empress Zhang’s expression grew stern as she spoke earnestly to him.
No matter how good Xiao Keyu was, he was not her son. Even if her own child had his faults, it was a mother’s duty to plan for his future.
She did not claim to be a kind person, but for this, her only son, she had given him everything she could—and even used underhanded means to get what she could not give legitimately. Without their efforts, a position as Empress and Crown Prince would never have fallen to them, given their unremarkable family background.
If he did not care about all she had done for him, so be it—she would bear all the hardship herself. But could he not at least show some understanding? Could he not stop opposing his father, knowing how popular Xiao Keyu had been as Crown Prince? With such a model to follow, could he not pretend to be virtuous and rein in his ways for the sake of his position?
“I’m not hotheaded or fond of fighting! For two years now, I’ve been playing the part of this dull, tedious Crown Prince—with officials praising me to my face and showing respect and obedience to my father. If I still don’t measure up to Xiao Keyu, it’s simply because I grew up wild with no one to discipline me. Even if I tried to pretend, I could never be what you want me to be!”
Xiao Fusu spoke with frustration. Why should he have to learn from Xiao Keyu? He was himself—why must he be a substitute for someone else? Even as Crown Prince, why could he never escape Xiao Keyu’s shadow?
Was he really so inferior? Even his own mother—his closest family, the one he had relied on through everything—preferred Xiao Keyu’s ways and wanted him to be just like him.
A wave of self-defeating bitterness rose within him. Even as Crown Prince, he could not change the harsh truth: he was not Xiao Keyu, and he could never be him. Whether it was his unchangeable background or his feigned demeanor—coldness, loneliness, criticism—he had long grown accustomed to it all.
He had once been nothing more than a neglected bastard prince. If his father had not grown to favor his mother later on, and by extension him, he would not have even earned a second glance.
How could he ever have hoped to sit on the Crown Prince’s throne?
Yes—this position had been taken from Xiao Keyu. It was theft, dishonorable and unjust, never truly his to begin with.
A bitter, self-mocking laugh echoed in his heart.
Laughing at how unpredictable fate was, how it toyed with people’s lives.
It seemed he was better off just being himself. If this struggle for the throne had never happened, perhaps he could have lived freely as a leisurely prince. But fate had pushed them all into the line of fire, and there was no turning back.
Time flew by—two years had passed in the blink of an eye.
The past had become a distant, fading dream.
Xiao Fusu’s words struck a chord in Empress Zhang’s normally cold heart. Beyond her anger, she looked at her son’s increasingly defiant and lonely face and felt a pang of sympathy.
She knew she had not been a good mother to him in his childhood. Born to a humble background, surrounded by countless beauties in the palace, and married to an Emperor with a wandering heart, she had devoted all her energy to winning his favor. As a result, she had often been absent from Xiao Fusu’s life, leaving him to grow up with a particularly unruly and stubborn nature—fond of martial arts and disdainful of following rules to be the obedient, gentle child elders preferred.
But this was not his fault—it was hers.
Letting out a quiet sigh, she pushed down her anger and spoke in a calm, rational tone. “I won’t dwell on the past anymore. I called you here today to ask about the hunt yesterday.”
“You’ve been spying on me!”
Xiao Fusu looked up at her in disbelief, his eyes filled with shock and growing fury.
But Empress Zhang paid no heed to his reaction, pressing on with a serious expression. “I’ve heard you not only acted recklessly with the sons of important ministers, using a person as target practice for sport, but also hid an unknown woman in the Eastern Palace. Fusu—what were you thinking? How could you be so foolish? Before your father summons you, get rid of that woman immediately. If word gets out, she’ll only bring trouble upon us!”