Chu Li hurriedly set down the cup.
“Father, I suddenly feel unwell. I fear my wounds may have reopened, so I need to leave early.”
“I take my leave, Father!”
With one hand awkwardly covering her backside, she hobbled out of Chengyang Palace as fast as she could.
Heavens above!
Great Bodhisattva!
With the heavens as my witness, I swear I only gave that jade sword the slightest touch. I have no idea how it suddenly broke.
Which bastard did this and made me take the blame?
Just wait until I find out!
Chu Li clenched her fists.
For the foreseeable future, she decided it was safest to hide in her Zhaolan Palace and keep a low profile. She would stay inside, shut the doors, and avoid going anywhere.
The very first thing she did upon returning was close the palace gates.
Please, let the Prince Regent be terribly busy. Please don’t let him come looking for trouble.
Heaven help me.
“Ah!”
While crossing the imperial garden, a hand suddenly shot out from behind the shadows of a rockery and dragged her inside.
Before she could react, she caught the strong smell of vinegar.
She was just about to cough when her mouth was forcibly silenced.
“Mm!”
Chu Li’s pupils shrank.
In the faint light hidden among the shadows, a stern, icy face loomed before her.
The man wore a tall jade crown, his sharp brows slanting toward his temples and his aquiline nose close to her face. His presence was intensely intimidating as he pinned her into the flower bed.
At the same time, a rush of hurried footsteps passed nearby.
“He’s been drugged. He can’t have gotten far!”
“Search everywhere! Quickly!”
“After him!”
The Prince Regent!
Chu Li tried to struggle, but the man seized her hands and held them above her head. His body was burning hot, and she could feel that he was no longer in his right mind.
Having grown up in the palace, Chu Li knew all too well about the methods some consorts and concubines used when vying for the Emperor’s favor.
The Prince Regent had been drugged.
“Let me go……”
His grip was so powerful that the struggle hurt terribly, and her voice was cut short.
No!
It absolutely cannot be me!
Even if it had to be some palace maid, it couldn’t be me!
“Let…… let me go……”
Chu Li struggled desperately, striking at him with all her strength, but Chu Dichi had completely lost control of himself and refused to loosen his grip.
Sweat poured down his forehead, his eyes were unfocused, and his voice was hoarse beyond recognition.
“I will give you a proper title.”
“Stop! Don’t—”
At that moment, Chu Li’s mind went completely blank.
***
Ever since she was little, Chu Li had known that her disguise as a boy was a secret that could cost her life if it were ever exposed. That was why she had always gone through life like a lazy, carefree fish, never competing with her elder brothers for anything.
She had simply planned to wait until she came of age, receive a residence from her father just like her brothers, leave the palace, and live quietly as an idle prince.
But tonight, it felt as though she had been cast straight into hell, with the rest of her life ruined.
Those two hours passed in agony. She could barely breathe and had no idea how she managed to endure them.
By the third watch of the night (roughly 11 p.m. to 1 a.m.), Chu Dichi finally fell into a deep unconsciousness.
Clutching her disheveled clothes, Chu Li staggered back to Zhaolan Palace.
“Ouch!”
Gou Ba had been worried sick all night.
“Master, where did you go? I’ve been searching for you all night…… Wait! Your clothes……!”
Why did she look as though she had been through a terrible assault?
Chu Li shot him a cold look, her expression turning severe.
“Not a word about what happened tonight. Do not tell anyone.”
Fortunately, it was already the middle of the night. Apart from the eunuchs and guards on duty, most people were asleep.
“Take my clothes, shoes, and sachet and burn them all.”
Gou Ba did not dare question her. He quickly helped the Ninth Prince inside.
He gathered up the disordered clothes and was about to take them away when Chu Li suddenly stopped him.
“Wait!”
No.
She couldn’t burn them.
Everyone had seen what she was wearing at the victory banquet tonight. If those clothes were suddenly destroyed and anyone began investigating, it would make her look suspicious.
Besides, the woman the Prince Regent had given her was still staying in Zhaolan Palace.
If that woman reported even the slightest thing about Chu Li’s movements to the Prince Regent, everything would be exposed.
“Take them to be washed. Just clean them as usual. Don’t attract anyone’s attention. Then bring me some hot water……”
Forget it!
She couldn’t bathe.
Taking a bath in the middle of the night for no reason would only arouse suspicion.
Chu Li had no choice but to endure the sticky discomfort clinging to her body.
“I tripped and fell on my way back. The wound reopened, and I passed out from the pain. Help me bandage it again.”
“Yes.”
Gou Ba had served the Ninth Prince faithfully since childhood. He trusted her completely and knew her true gender.
Chu Li leaned against the table, looking utterly exhausted, almost on the verge of collapse.
The wound on her buttocks had reopened and burned with pain, but her entire body was even more exhausted, as though several carriages had run her over.
When she thought back to what had happened that night……
This could never leak out. Not even the slightest hint.
Dressing as a man was punishable by death.
She was not a true member of the imperial bloodline. That was also punishable by death.
Even if she had ten heads, it still would not be enough to lose them all.
What kind of disaster is this?
She only wanted to live like a lazy fish—quietly, without competing for anything, keeping herself unnoticed.
Why was even that so difficult?
Chu Dichi!
Your horoscope must have been destined to clash with mine!
Lying face-down on the bed after applying medicine, Chu Li drifted in and out of consciousness from the pain.
By the time dawn came, she was drenched in sweat when a young eunuch hurried in with a message.
“This servant greets the Ninth Prince. By the Empress’s command, the Ninth Prince is to go to Qingxue Palace immediately.”
Qingxue Palace was the residence of the imperial consorts in the inner palace.
“What happened?”
Chu Li’s voice was hoarse.
The young eunuch knelt on the floor and answered with his head lowered.
“Last night, the Prince Regent is suspected of having assaulted Noble Lady Lan of Qingxue Palace. His Majesty was furious. Her Majesty the Empress is conducting a thorough investigation and has specifically summoned the guards who were on duty last night, as well as several princes who have not yet been given residences outside the palace, to question and examine them one by one.”
Chu Li was furious.
So after what happened between the Prince Regent and me last night, he went and harmed Noble Lady Lan too?
That beast!
That animal!
Noble Lady Lan’s rank might have been low, but she was still, in terms of family hierarchy, his imperial sister-in-law.
How could he behave so shamelessly?
Chu Li grabbed a clean set of clothes and hurried to Qingxue Palace, intending to use Noble Lady Lan’s testimony to give the Prince Regent a thorough scolding.
But the moment she arrived at Qingxue Palace, she heard a terrified scream.
A guard’s corpse came tumbling down the steps and landed at her feet.
The guard’s eyes were wide open.
Blood poured from his slashed throat. Like a slaughtered animal, he desperately clutched at the hem of Chu Li’s robe.
“Help…… help……”
“Ah!”
“Ahhh!!”
The palace maids and consorts screamed in terror.
Chu Li’s vision went black.
Her robe was smeared with bloody handprints.
A life had just been snuffed out before her eyes.
Standing on the steps, the stern and arrogant man in black robes held a soft sword in his hand, a cold smile on his lips.
“Now that the case has been solved, there must be punishment. Her Majesty the Empress is merciful, and that inevitably emboldens those beneath her. I merely rendered a small service. Your Majesty need not thank me.”
Noble Lady Lan had been secretly involved with a guard and had attempted to frame the Prince Regent.
The evidence was conclusive.
The truth had already been uncovered.
The Empress had intended to leave the matter to the Emperor.
Instead, the Prince Regent had drawn his sword and publicly executed the guard.
The Empress went pale. Unable to bear witnessing any more bloodshed, she immediately ordered Noble Lady Lan sent to the cold palace and bestowed a length of white silk upon her.
Chu Dichi carried the bloodstained sword down the steps and walked toward Chu Li.
A chill ran down her spine.
She instinctively took half a step back.
“I-I-Imperial Uncle……”
Her heel caught on the dead guard’s body, and she nearly fell.
A large hand seized her by the collar and lifted her as easily as a little chick.
“You……”
Chu Dichi pulled her closer. His dark eyes, sharp as an eagle’s, fixed intently on her.
“What is that smell on you?”
It was the lingering scent left behind after intimate relations.
Chu Li hadn’t had time to wash before being summoned by the Empress to Qingxue Palace.
At his sudden question, her heart immediately leaped into her throat.
She felt as though she were walking on thin ice.
“I…… I……”