Jiang Henian's seductive eyes carried a stubbornness she was trying very hard to show.
"What happened today was a mutual exchange—both of us were trying to survive. It was merely a fair trade. There's no need for you to come and propose marriage."
"Your temperament is rather different from what I had known about you."
Lu Huai's words received no reply from Jiang Henian. Instead, she mocked him softly: "If the Prince is unwilling, this humble daughter will take her leave now."
This was clearly a problem the two of them faced together, and he was the one who had proposed it first. Now why did it seem like she was the only one anxious about it?
Lu Huai did not miss the defiance in Jiang Henian's eyes.
He smiled lightly, the crimson at the corners of his eyes looking extraordinarily alluring.
In a daze, Jiang Henian couldn't even remember how she had been carried by Lu Huai into a secluded side hall, how she had clung to him in desperate passion, or the sound of Lu Huai's gentle coaxing whispers by her ear.
Every word of his seduction made her blush and her heart race beyond her control.
But that didn't stop her, once she was clear-headed, from supporting her aching waist and cursing viciously at Lu Huai's retreating back.
Something that could have been settled in one round—why did it have to take a second, even a third?
Bastard! He nearly wore her life out!
Lu Huai suddenly turned around, and Jiang Henian hastily averted her gaze elsewhere.
"If I were to grant you the position of my Princess Consort, would you agree to the marriage between us?"
Jiang Henian's waist ached and her legs were weak. She steadied herself against the wall before shaking her head. "The Prince need not worry. As for this matter… as long as you don't speak of it, this humble daughter will keep her lips sealed!"
She only wanted to escape her current predicament—nothing more. More than Lu Huai, she wanted to guard this shameful secret.
"Keep your lips sealed? If I may be so bold, your chastity is already lost. Your future marriage prospects will surely be affected because of this."
Jiang Henian lowered her eyes, concealing all her unwillingness.
"This humble daughter is of lowly status—how would I dare to reach above myself for the Prince? As for my future, there's no need for the Prince to worry."
Lu Huai, fully dressed, came before Jiang Henian and stared at her without the slightest pretense of avoidance.
Even though the two of them had just been completely bare before each other, Jiang Henian still couldn't bear such an unabashed examination.
"About what happened today—do you want revenge?"
Jiang Henian's heart suddenly turned cold.
The blood-deep grudge between her and Lu Heng—how could she not want revenge?
But this matter had to be done in secret, without a single soul knowing.
Otherwise, how could a small Jijiu Residence possibly contend with the Donggong and the Zhonggong?
"The Prince jests. This humble daughter's words carry little weight—I know my place well enough."
Lu Huai looked at her deeply. "The way you look right now is nothing like how candid you were just moments ago."
Jiang Henian barely suppressed the urge to curse at him. "The Prince wields immense power. Finding a way to settle a grudge would naturally be far simpler for you than for this humble woman."
But Lu Huai seemed not to understand her meaning at all. He swept her up in his arms by the waist.
Caught off guard, Jiang Henian let out a soft gasp and instinctively raised her arms to loop around his neck.
When her soft fingers touched the skin of his neck, both of them suddenly froze.
Jiang Henian's face flushed crimson in an instant.
Lu Huai cleared his throat lightly, then used his cloak to cover her completely.
"If you could lessen the hatred in your eyes by just a fraction, perhaps I might believe your words."
"I'll escort you to the palace gate. Given your current state, you wouldn't even make it out of the palace before being dragged back. Once outside, I'll arrange for someone to see you safely home."
"You may seek nothing from me, but I cannot be without honor."
Jiang Henian cursed inwardly. You call that honor? Whose fault is it that I'm in this state?
At the corner near the palace gate, Lu Huai finally set her down gently.
Jiang Henian walked toward the palace gate without looking back. But Lu Huai, suddenly bereft of the warmth and softness in his arms and hands, watched her slender retreating figure and felt a strange sense of loss.
He let out a faint self-deprecating laugh, then walked in the opposite direction.
Only after stepping out of the palace gate did Jiang Henian realize that Lu Huai's "arrangement" was the personal maid who claimed to be Princess Kangle's attendant.
With the protection of Princess Kangle—the current Emperor's most beloved daughter—Jiang Henian returned home without arousing any worry or suspicion from her family.
Gazing upon her loved ones—those who in her previous life had died or whose fates were unknown—Jiang Henian used every ounce of her strength to keep herself calm.
But Jiang Lingyun's words still made her heart tremble involuntarily.
"I heard the Crown Prince flew into a terrible rage in the Donggong."
She instinctively looked at Jiang Lingyun. "Elder Brother, what happened in the Donggong?"
Jiang Lingyun shook his head. "They say some palace servants had thieving hands—taking advantage of the Empress Dowager's birthday banquet to steal a jade pendant that the late Emperor had bestowed upon him."
"That pendant must be very important. Otherwise, the Crown Prince, who is always so benevolent, wouldn't have ordered several maids and eunuchs beaten to death."
Benevolent?
She remembered that in her previous life, her impression of Lu Heng had also been one of "benevolence."
But now, whenever Lu Heng was mentioned, she wished she could eat his flesh and drink his blood!
Jiang Henian almost instinctively opened her mouth: "How can one tell whether a person is benevolent just from appearances?"
This time, not only Jiang Lingyun found it strange, even Jiang Bai, who was already past sixty, gave Jiang Henian a second look.
"Nian'er, haven't you always admired the Crown Prince's character the most? Why would you suddenly say something like this today?"
Under the pressure of those two gazes, Jiang Henian took a deep breath before turning to them with a bright smile.
"In my view, having so many people beaten to death over a jade pendant hardly counts as benevolence."
The truth of the matter was that Lu Huan must have been afraid that what happened in the Donggong today would come to light, so he used the jade pendant as a cover to kill those people and silence them.
"In the past, my judgment was too shallow."
Jiang Bai nodded with great satisfaction; the white hair on his head did not diminish the clarity in his eyes in the slightest.
"Henian, you have always been intelligent but lacking in discernment. What you just said cannot be taken as a definitive conclusion, but it is still a unique insight. This old man is deeply gratified."
Hearing Jiang Bai's vigorous voice, Jiang Henian felt her eyes grow hot, and her heart ached as if it were being sliced by a thousand blades.
In her previous life, she had failed to escape Lu Huan's schemes, and the Jiang family was falsely accused of being traitors and rebels. Her two most beloved elder brothers were subjected to brutal torture and then exiled to a land of bitter cold… Her two sisters-in-law were humiliated to death… Her third and fourth sisters, having lost the support of their natal family, were tormented by their in-laws and eventually divorced…
But what pained her most was her elderly grandfather.
This old man had devoted his life's work to nurturing hundreds of pillars of talent for Daliang. Yet in the end, to prove his innocence and loyalty, he took his own life in the Tianlao.
Even so, it did not restore the Jiang family's honor!
As for herself, she had always been well-mannered and cultured, inheriting the Jiang family's virtue of kindness toward others. To avoid becoming a burden to the Jiang family, she endured and endured, yielded and yielded…
Even when she was tormented beyond recognition by Lu Huan and Su Ruo, she never once dared to think of fighting back.
But in the end, what she got was a death by fire.
That great fire seemed to have burned everything clean, yet it could not burn away the filthy hearts of those people!