Before dawn the next morning, Cui’er came to wake her.
“Miss, it’s time to get up. Today you must enter the palace to offer thanks to His Majesty.”
Xiao Shuwan climbed out of bed and looked into the bronze mirror. She jumped in shock.
Dark circles ringed her eyes, her complexion was sallow, and she looked nothing like a newlywed bride.
She spent over half an hour applying her makeup, covering the dark circles with a thick layer of powder before changing into the formal robes of a princess consort. Only then did she look barely presentable.
“Where is the Prince? When are we leaving?” she asked.
Keeping her head lowered, Cui’er stammered, “N-Nanny Lu said… Her Ladyship is to go to the palace alone. His Highness is feeling unwell and cannot accompany you.”
The comb slipped from Xiao Shuwan’s hand and clattered onto the floor.
Go to the palace alone?
On the second day after a wedding, it was customary for husband and wife to enter the palace together to express their gratitude. Even if Prince Ning were gravely ill, he should still have been carried there. It was a matter of court etiquette and imperial dignity.
Yet he was sending her by herself?
“Nanny Lu said His Majesty and Her Majesty the Empress have already been informed and have graciously excused His Highness from attending,” Cui’er added in an increasingly quiet voice.
Xiao Shuwan’s expression darkened as though she had swallowed a fly.
Even the Emperor and Empress had accepted it?
That meant Prince Ning’s health was so poor that everyone in the palace considered it perfectly normal for him not to appear.
A bone-deep chill suddenly crept over her.
If Prince Ning was truly too sick even to enter the palace, then how much longer could he possibly live?
No.
She hurriedly comforted herself.
He would recover. He had to.
Taking a deep breath, Xiao Shuwan straightened her robes and boarded the carriage to the palace alone.
The carriage stopped outside the palace gates.
After getting down, she followed a eunuch through the towering gates.
Every palace maid and eunuch she passed bowed respectfully, yet something about their gazes unsettled her.
There was curiosity.
There was pity.
And there was even a hint of people waiting to watch a spectacle.
She was escorted to the Empress’s Fengyi Palace.
Not the Emperor’s Imperial Study.
The Empress’s palace.
Which meant the Emperor had no intention of seeing her at all.
“Princess Consort Ning has arrived!” the eunuch announced in his shrill voice.
Xiao Shuwan entered the main hall of Fengyi Palace and knelt to kowtow.
The Empress sat dignified upon the raised seat, dressed in a dark violet robe with a crimson-gold phoenix hairpin adorning her hair. Her expression was gentle and composed.
Looking down at Xiao Shuwan, she smiled faintly. Her voice was warm, yet unmistakably distant.
“Rise. There is no need for excessive ceremony. Prince Ning is in poor health, so it must have been difficult for you to come alone.”
Xiao Shuwan thanked her and rose, standing quietly with lowered hands.
The Empress examined her for a moment, her gaze lingering briefly on Xiao Shuwan’s face before signaling to a palace maid beside her.
The maid approached carrying a red lacquer tray.
Resting upon it was a gold hairpin.
Its craftsmanship was decent enough, but the design was utterly ordinary—obviously something taken casually from the palace storerooms.
“This is a small token from me,” the Empress said indifferently.
Xiao Shuwan accepted the hairpin, her heart sinking.
Though she had not witnessed it in her previous life, she had heard about it.
When Xiao Guiwan had entered the palace to offer thanks, the Empress had rewarded her with an entire set of crimson-gold jewelry.
The Emperor had even bestowed upon her two bolts of cloud brocade.
As for herself…
She received only a single gold hairpin.
And the plainest sort at that.
“Thank you for Your Majesty’s gracious reward.”
Her voice remained steady, but the fingers supporting the tray trembled ever so slightly.
The Empress seemed to notice her unease and added gently,
“Take good care of Prince Ning. Once his health improves, come together to pay your respects to His Majesty.”
The words sounded caring.
But Xiao Shuwan heard the hidden meaning beneath them.
The Emperor has no desire to see you. Come back only when your husband is fit enough to be presented before him.
She remained in Fengyi Palace for less than the time it took to drink a cup of tea before being politely dismissed.
As she stepped out through the palace gates, she glanced back at the magnificent palace walls.
Golden glazed roof tiles glittered beneath the sunlight.
The crimson walls rose high into the sky, grand and imposing.
This was the place she had dreamed of standing in during her previous life.
Yet she had received none of the glory she had imagined.
No grand audience.
No lavish rewards.
Only a perfunctory gold hairpin and a cold, deserted side hall.
She gripped the hairpin tightly until her knuckles turned white.
It’s alright, she told herself silently.
Once Prince Ning recovers, everything will be different.
If Xiao Guiwan could do it in my previous life, so can I.
I’m the legitimate daughter.
I’m smarter than she is.
More beautiful than she is.
I can certainly do even better.
The carriage rumbled back to Prince Ning’s estate.
As Xiao Shuwan stepped down, she saw Nanny Lu waiting at the entrance.
Standing upon the stone steps with her hands folded before her, Nanny Lu wore an expressionless face, as though she had long expected Xiao Shuwan to return at precisely this hour.
“You’ve worked hard today, Your Highness.”
She gave a perfunctory curtsy, her tone neither warm nor cold.
“His Highness has been in fair spirits today and only just fell asleep before Your Highness returned. Please go back and rest for now. Once His Highness awakens, this old servant will inform you.”
Looking at Nanny Lu’s rigid face, Xiao Shuwan suddenly remembered something.
In her previous life, Nanny Lu had already been serving at Prince Ning’s estate when Xiao Guiwan married in.
She remembered Xiao Guiwan mentioning that Nanny Lu had been left behind by Prince Ning’s late mother. She managed the household affairs and treated everyone with the same cool, detached manner.
But back then…
At the very least, Nanny Lu had treated Xiao Guiwan with proper respect.
Why, when it came to her, did she speak with such quiet condescension?
“Nanny Lu,” Xiao Shuwan said evenly, “I am Prince Ning’s Princess Consort—the mistress of this estate. From now on, I hope you’ll continue offering your guidance regarding the affairs of the household.”
The words sounded courteous, but beneath them she was unmistakably asserting her authority.
Nanny Lu merely looked at her and replied calmly,
“Your Highness flatters this old servant. I am only someone who waits upon others. How would I dare presume to guide Your Highness? Since you’ve only recently arrived and are unfamiliar with the rules of the estate, it naturally falls to this old servant to teach you.”
The single word teach effortlessly swept aside Xiao Shuwan’s declaration of authority.
Grinding her teeth, Xiao Shuwan said nothing.
She turned and walked back to her courtyard.
Closing the door behind her, she tossed the gold hairpin onto the table and collapsed onto an embroidered stool.
Cui’er cautiously followed her inside, carefully watching her expression.
“Miss, please don’t be angry. His Highness is only ill. Once he recovers—”
“Enough.”
Xiao Shuwan’s voice was icy.
Cui’er immediately fell silent.
Sitting there, Xiao Shuwan stared fixedly at the gold hairpin on the table while the same question echoed over and over in her mind.
Why?
She had stolen Xiao Guiwan’s marriage.
She had married into Prince Ning’s estate.
She was the legitimate Princess Consort of Prince Ning.
So why had everything gone wrong?
The wedding procession had been wrong.
The wedding ceremony had been wrong.
The wedding night had been wrong.
Even today’s visit to offer thanks had been wrong.
All the dignity she expected was gone.
All the honors she anticipated had vanished.
Then she suddenly remembered a rumor she had heard in her previous life.
Prince Ning, Mu Hanzhao, was said to be cold-hearted and withdrawn.
He treated no one warmly.
Not even his own birth mother, while she had been alive, had received much affection from him.
At the time, Xiao Shuwan had dismissed it as idle gossip.
Now…
She believed it.
This man truly was cold.
But—
Closing her eyes, Xiao Shuwan drew a deep breath.
When she opened them again, the panic had disappeared.
Cold? Then so be it.
I’m not afraid of the cold.
Wasn’t Xiao Guiwan forced to endure the same thing in my previous life?
She survived the hardest days before finally ascending to that position.
I can endure.
I can wait.
When Prince Ning recovers…
When he ascends the throne…
When I become Empress…
I’ll repay every slight and every humiliation I’ve suffered today, one by one.
Standing before the bronze mirror, Xiao Shuwan slowly removed the jeweled ornaments from her hair.
The woman reflected within it was young.
Beautiful.
And consumed by ambition.
She smiled faintly at her own reflection.
“Xiao Shuwan… you’ll be the one who wins.”
The smile reflected in the bronze mirror looked strangely sinister beneath the flickering candlelight.