After Lin Yao left yesterday, Chu Huaian dismissed his attendants and sat by the study window. In the dim light of the setting sun, he examined the small clay figurine closely.
The figurine was crudely made, but the row of crooked little characters carved into its base was like a rusty blunt knife, sawing back and forth across Chu Huaian’s heart.
“Brother Huaian, happy birthday. Chu Xuan, fourth year, ninth month.”
Chu Xuan’s fourth year—that year he was twelve, and she was ten.
Chu Huaian traced the characters, his fingertip trembling slightly against the rough clay surface.
So she had hidden this gift behind the rockery, and she had kept this sentiment in the darkness for eight full years.
But… when they met at the rockery today, why had she looked so bewildered? As if this figurine wasn’t made by her at all, but was just a piece of trash she’d picked up by chance?
As he was lost in thought, the study’s hidden door creaked softly open.
A black-clad shadow guard slipped in silently, bowed, and reported in a low voice: “Your Highness, we’ve found it. We located the estate outside the capital where Miss Lin Yao has lived these eight years—it’s near Yan Prefecture, just beyond the capital’s outskirts. The estate is indeed the Minister’s private property, extremely remote. All these years, only a young maid and an old matron have attended her.”
Chu Huaian’s eyes sharpened. He tucked the figurine into his sleeve. “Her illness—has it been verified?”
“Yes, Your Highness.” The shadow guard lowered his voice further. “The surrounding farmers can all testify. The Minister’s eldest daughter was only ten when she was sent there, and she was indeed both blind and mute. For these eight years, she has barely left the house, sitting in the courtyard in a daze all day. She is a genuine invalid… a patient.”
Chu Huaian’s fingers clenched suddenly.
If she had truly been blind and mute for eight years, then why had her gaze been so clear and bright on their wedding night? Why had she spoken so fluently and climbed over the rockery so nimbly at the Eastern Palace today?
Could it be… there was something else going on?
“And the two attendants?”
“Rest assured, Your Highness. The matron and the young maid have been secretly detained by our people and are being well cared for. Whenever you wish, they can be brought forth for questioning.”
“Well done.” A hint of severity flashed in Chu Huaian’s eyes. “Keep them alive. Watch them closely!”
After dismissing the shadow guard, Chu Huaian’s thoughts grew even more troubled.
Not until the moon rose above the willows did a eunuch arrive cautiously to report that the Crown Princess had sent someone to summon His Highness for the evening meal. He tucked the figurine close to his person, concealed the emotion in his eyes, and resumed his usual gentle, cool demeanor.
When he arrived at the front hall, an exquisite meal had already been laid out.
Lin Rou, dressed in pale pink palace attire, rose gracefully the moment he entered. After Chu Huaian took his seat, she personally took the bronze basin of washing water from a servant and knelt beside him to attend him.
“Your Highness must be weary from handling state affairs.”
Chu Huaian washed his hands and said indifferently, “Let the servants handle such matters in the future. You are the Crown Princess; there’s no need for this.”
Lin Rou smiled, her gentleness flawless. “Serving Your Highness is my own wish. There’s no hardship in it.”
“Minister Lin came today?” He dried his hands, asking as if it were of no consequence.
At the mention of her father, Lin Rou’s eyes flickered slightly. “Yes, Father was concerned about me.”
“I heard the prospective Fourth Princess came along as well?”
At the mention of “Lin Yao,” Lin Rou’s hand paused briefly as she served the dishes, then returned to normal. “Father was also worried about Sister’s health, so he specially asked me to summon her for a talk.”
Chu Huaian turned his head, his gaze settling on Lin Rou’s delicate face, his tone unreadable: “I heard from the servants that my father-in-law lost his temper. What happened?”
Lin Rou’s heart leaped. Internally she cursed that meddlesome gatekeeper for being loose-tongued, but on the surface she quickly assumed an expression of helpless regret.
“Your Highness knows that Sister was raised in the outer estate due to illness. After so long there, her temperament became somewhat… willful. Today Father was merely instructing her on the proper conduct of a wife, and Sister talked back to him. Father lost his temper in the moment and accidentally knocked over a teacup, which grazed Sister.”
So the wound on her face had been inflicted by Minister Lin.
He recalled how, when he’d seen the scratch on her cheek at the rockery this afternoon, the thought that had risen in his mind was “she’s still as mischievous as when she was little.” Now, thinking back, how laughable he had been in that moment.
She was no longer a child of ten. She had been struck by a teacup thrown by her own father in the Eastern Palace and had walked out wounded—and he, standing at the corridor, had looked at the bloody mark on her face and thought, “she’s like she was as a child.”
He hadn’t even asked her a single question. A wave of unprecedented guilt surged through him…
But he revealed nothing on his face. He only nodded faintly, his tone laden with meaning: “She is your sister, but she is also the future Fourth Princess. This palace has many eyes and ears. No matter how close you are, you must understand ‘propriety.’ Next time Minister Lin comes, keep him for dinner. Let me also share a few cups with my father-in-law.”
After the evening meal, Chu Huaian had someone fetch the finest Golden Wound Medicine from the Eastern Palace’s storehouse. With the medicine in hand, he hesitated.
The night was already deep. For the Crown Prince to visit his younger brother’s wife’s courtyard at this hour would be improper; but if he merely sent a servant to deliver it, he feared the servant might not grasp the weight of the matter, might fail to convey his feelings—and he wouldn’t be able to see her current state for himself.
That night, Chu Huaian tossed and turned, unable to sleep. The crude clay figurine lay by his pillow, pressing against his chest like a stone.
He barely made it through court the next day. Without even changing out of his court robes, he clutched the bottle of Golden Wound Medicine, warmed by his body heat, tucked the clay figurine into his robes, dismissed his attendants, and walked alone toward Jingyou Pavilion.
The courtyard gate of Jingyou Pavilion was half-ajar. Before he even got close, two unguarded voices drifted out—
“Chu Liyuan! Are you trying to kill a pig with that grip? Ow—that hurts!”
“Stop squirming… almost done.”
Chu Huaian’s steps came to an abrupt halt.
That familiar tone—tinged with a hint of playful petulance—was something he had never heard from Lin Yao as an adult.
Acting on impulse, he held his breath and peered through the crack in the gate.
There was Lin Yao, her back to the door, lounging lazily in the sunlight at the center of the courtyard.
And Chu Liyuan—the man renowned for his brutality—had shed all his ferocity. He stood behind her, one hand gathering her waterfall of dark hair, the other holding a rough tree branch, clumsily yet intently trying to pin it up for her.
Time seemed to flow backward in that moment, overlapping with the radiant peach blossom grove of the Eastern Palace years ago.
Back then, little A’yao was only six or seven, and he himself just eight or nine—the perfect age for childhood sweethearts.
The two little ones would dart through the rockeries playing hide-and-seek. A’yao would run too fast and get her hair snagged on a jutting branch, her neatly tied double buns instantly turning into a bird’s nest, pearl hairpins scattering everywhere.
She never got angry. Clutching the remaining hairpin in her hand, she’d run over breathless with her messy hair, grabbing his arm: “Brother Huaian, help me! My hair’s all tangled—if I can’t fix it, Mother will scold me again!”
Little Huaian would look at her disheveled state, shake his head helplessly, and sigh like a miniature adult—yet he’d still patiently undo her hair and smooth it out strand by strand.
But he was the Crown Prince—what did he know about styling a girl’s hair? After fussing for ages, all he managed was a crooked, lopsided little bun that looked ready to topple.
“Brother Huaian, this bun is crooked all the way to grandma’s house!” Little A’yao would pout, poking at the ugly bun as she examined her reflection in the pond.
“I told you to slow down, but you never listen! I’m the Crown Prince, not a lady’s maid!”
Feeling unappreciated after all his help, little Huaian shot her a sulky glare and recited the Grand Tutor’s teachings with all the gravity he could muster: “The Grand Tutor said, ‘To tie one’s hair together is to become husband and wife, loving each other without doubt.’ A man only pins a woman’s hair after they’re married. I shouldn’t even be combing your hair—if my future Crown Princess found out, she’d be upset.”
Hearing this, little A’yao blinked her big eyes and suddenly smiled.
She sidled up, tugging his sleeve, her voice innocent and certain: “What’s so hard about that? I’ll just be your Crown Princess!”
“As long as I’m your Crown Princess, you can comb my hair all you want—and even if you do it badly, I won’t blame you!”
Little Huaian froze, staring at the delicate, porcelain-doll girl before him. The tips of his ears flushed red.
He cleared his throat, picked up the comb again, but couldn’t stop the corners of his mouth from curling up: “Ah, forget it. I can’t do anything with you. Let me take it down and redo it.”
“But we’ve made a deal—”
Sunlight filtered through the peach blossoms, spilling over the two children. The little Crown Prince’s voice rang clear and solemn: “You’re going to be my Crown Princess.”
Boom—!
The laughter of memory shattered violently against the sound of “Chu Liyuan!”
Chu Huaian jolted back to reality.
There was no Eastern Palace rockery. No little A’yao.
Only the dilapidated Jingyou Pavilion, and Chu Liyuan standing behind Lin Yao, clumsily pinning her hair with a tree branch.
The girl who had once promised to be his Crown Princess now turned her back, unguarded, to another man.
The hair that only he had ever touched now wound around another man’s fingers.
Tying their hair together…
It seemed she no longer needed him to pin it up for her.