The young eunuch set down the plate of tantalizing pastries and retreated with a bow.
Chu Liyuan stared fixedly at the delicate osmanthus cakes, the gloom in his eyes nearly dripping with malice.
His fury turned to a mocking laugh, his voice low and rasping with sarcasm: “The Crown Prince’s reach is certainly long—so concerned about my future princess!”
Chu Liyuan took a sudden step forward, his murderous aura instantly enveloping Lin Yao: “This little coordinated act of yours—you played it flawlessly!”
Lin Yao wanted nothing more than to roll her eyes. How did this Crown Prince always manage to time things so “perfectly,” deliberately making the Fourth Prince think she and the Crown Prince were in cahoots?
So she flashed a conciliatory smile: “Fourth Prince, please see reason…”
But Chu Liyuan leaned in, his gaze slicing across her face like a blade, as if trying to cut through her skin to see what lay beneath: “The Prime Minister’s eldest daughter is supposed to be blind and mute, yet you can see, you can speak, and you can even steal this prince’s jade pendant…”
His long fingers suddenly clamped onto her jaw with startling force: “Lin Yao, who sent you? Are you the blade Chu Huaian has hidden for eight years, or a discarded pawn the Prime Minister’s estate sent specifically to disgust me?”
Forced to tilt her head up, Lin Yao’s hairs stood on end under his oppressive aura, yet she remained unflinching and blinked innocently: “Of course I’m Lin Yao, the genuine article. As for my illness—”
She added with sincere confusion: “Perhaps the heavens saw how difficult this marriage was to arrange and decided to bestow… a medical miracle?”
Chu Liyuan stared at her like she was an idiot, then let out a cold laugh and straightened up: “In a month, you’ll be mine anyway, and I’ll have a hundred ways to make your life a living hell. Don’t cause trouble—I’ll have people watching you!”
Lin Yao shrugged helplessly: “What trouble could I possibly cause? I can’t even get out this door!”
She grabbed an osmanthus cake from the plate in self-defeat, taking a fierce bite to suppress the inexplicable frustration building inside her.
Crisp, sweet, and full of high-calorie bliss.
She was just marveling that the Crown Prince’s pastries lived up to their reputation—rich with osmanthus flavor and a subtle hint of almond—when before she could even swallow her second bite, a terrifying sensation of suffocation surged over her like a tidal wave.
Her heart began pounding like a war drum, and her airways seemed to be squeezed shut by invisible hands in an instant. Her skin started burning and itching, and she watched red welts break out across her arms.
Was this original body allergic to something?!
“Mm…”
Lin Yao clutched her throat in agony, the half-eaten pastry dropping from her hand and shattering on the floor.
Her face went from deathly pale to purple in seconds, and her body crumpled straight toward the ground like a puppet with its strings cut.
Chu Liyuan had been about to sweep out in a huff, but the sound made him whip around—his pupils contracting sharply.
“Lin Yao?!”
He reacted with lightning speed, lunging forward and catching her in his arms just before she hit the floor.
By now, Lin Yao was barely conscious, weakly gripping the dark fabric of his robes, her fingertips trembling from lack of oxygen.
Hadn’t this woman been sharp-tongued just moments ago? Now she was about to die from one bite of that hypocrite’s pastry?
He pressed roughly on her acupoints while bellowing toward the door: “Summon the imperial physician, now!”
When Lin Yao woke up, it was already the next day. Her first instinct was to find that plate of pastries, but the little maid said it was inauspicious and had already thrown them away.
She lay in the dim room, staring blankly at the ceiling beams.
That plate of pastries was definitely problematic. Was it the Crown Prince?
It probably wasn’t the Fourth Prince. And it seemed the Fourth Prince had saved her yesterday—the maid said Chu Liyuan had pressed on her chest before the physician arrived and even breathed air into her. So maybe he wasn’t completely rotten after all.
She’d only been transmigrated here for less than a week, and already she’d had quite the adventure—death threats were becoming routine.
So Lin Yao summarized her current situation:
The Fourth Prince hated her to the bone—she was the one who’d publicly humiliated him, yet she still had to marry him in a month. The Prime Minister’s estate wouldn’t save her either; she was the “waste” who’d been hidden away for eight years. The Emperor just wanted to cover up the scandal, and as someone who knew the inside story, her very existence was a liability.
The Crown Prince… she couldn’t read him yet, but she had a vague feeling he wasn’t exactly a saint either.
So how was she supposed to survive?
Lin Yao’s head ached from thinking. She was about to call for some water when the door suddenly pushed open.
Against the light, a figure in bright yellow robes walked in.
Lin Yao instinctively looked up and froze for a moment.
Unlike Chu Liyuan’s oppressive presence that made you want to back away, this person’s beauty was the kind that made it impossible to look away.
His features were so refined they were nearly flawless—gentle brows and eyes that seemed to radiate light from within. Though not as tall as Chu Liyuan, his bearing was more upright, and his demeanor more composed.
This was none other than the Crown Prince, Chu Huaian.
Alarms blared in Lin Yao’s mind.
Chu Huaian came alone this time. Seeing Lin Yao lying on the bed, his eyes—usually as warm and gentle as polished jade—now probed her like an unfathomable deep pool, inscrutable and unreadable.
Her features were so similar to A’Yao’s, yet the way she looked at him was so unfamiliar.
“You are… A’Yao?” His voice was slightly hoarse when he spoke, as if he had pressed that name against his tongue for years before finally letting it out.
Oh ho! Am I or am I not?
Lin Yao watched the Crown Prince’s gaze, her mind racing: This Crown Prince… seems to know the original owner?
She sifted through the fragments of the original owner’s memories, vaguely catching a blurry silhouette of a young man, but she couldn’t make out his face.
Whatever. Let’s just try to get on his good side first.
So she gave a slight nod.
A complex expression flickered across the Crown Prince’s eyes. “That day… you kept your veil on the whole time, so I didn’t recognize you.”
Lin Yao still didn’t respond.
Chu Huaian looked at her, turbulent emotions churning in his heart. He wanted to ask if she’d been well these past eight years, wanted to ask… if she still remembered the promise they made as children.
But he asked nothing, because the way she looked at him was too unfamiliar…
The next moment, he reined in that brief lapse of composure, and his tone carried a hint of scrutiny: “Why did the Prime Minister’s estate hide you for eight years?” He asked softly. “That night’s incident… how much do you know?”
“Because eight years ago I fell gravely ill and became both blind and mute, so the Prime Minister’s estate hid me away. I woke up already in the bridal chamber—I don’t know anything.”
Lin Yao wasn’t lying; she had already told him everything she knew.
But Chu Huaian didn’t press further. Instead, he leaned in slightly and smoothed the corner of her blanket more neatly.
“Back when we were children, you always used to sneak into my palace and hide somewhere to startle me… I never thought you’d grow into such a grown young lady…” He let out a low chuckle. “And end up startling me on my wedding bed!”
This Crown Prince really had hidden meanings in every single sentence he spoke. But this did make Lin Yao understand what those pastries were really about—since they knew each other as children, the pastries must have been the Crown Prince’s deliberate test to see if she was really Lin Yao.
Lin Yao steeled herself. Whether she knew about the Crown Prince and Fourth Prince’s schemes, she simply didn’t, and that was that. So her voice turned even colder: “If Your Highness thinks I’m lying, you may investigate. But I only have one life, and I can’t afford to be ‘tested’ with pastries a second time.”
Chu Huaian’s gaze shifted slightly, and for the first time, he truly looked at her.
“Don’t blame Brother Huaian…” Chu Huaian’s lips twisted bitterly. “All these years in this palace, I’ve been schemed against so many times that I’ve come to trust nothing. If I hadn’t seen you cough with my own eyes, I would have thought… this was another trap Fourth Brother set for me.”
Lin Yao lay on the pillow, watching him wallow in his own sentimentality, while she had nearly gone straight to the afterlife. Screw “Brother Huaian”—that was anaphylactic shock!
But Lin Yao knew that in her current situation, she couldn’t afford to offend anyone. So—
“So, has Your Highness confirmed it now?” Lin Yao’s voice was hoarse. “Confirmed that I’m the Lin Yao you know?”
Chu Huaian seemed to forcibly suppress some emotion. “Forget it.”
He let out a low laugh. “Before your wedding to Fourth Brother, you’ll still be staying in the palace. If you need anything, just have someone come find me.”
Lin Yao watched the Crown Prince’s retreating figure, lost in thought. If the Crown Prince had feelings for the original owner, could she perhaps… use that?
But then she reconsidered—this man could turn even his own wedding night into a scheme, and could use an allergic reaction as a test. His heart was black as ink.
Don’t overthink it. Survive first!