In the imperial study, Emperor Shunyuan sat at his desk reviewing memorials, while at his right hand stood a young girl in a pink curving-hem gown.
The girl lightly ground the ink, from time to time casting glances at the handsome young man at the Emperor's left. In any ordinary household, this would have been a scene of warm domestic harmony with both son and daughter present.
But this was the imperial study, which made it all seem rather strange.
Yue Tingyu ignored the curious glances directed his way, devoting his full attention to the memorial in his hands.
It was no wonder Jun Suining was curious. In her previous life, she had only known that A-Yu was highly favored by her father the Emperor—she had never imagined he was favored enough to help review memorials!
It seemed that even having been reborn, there was still much she didn't know. She still didn't understand A-Yu well enough.
Just now, Cang Ling had put it well—A-Yu truly was the descendant of a convicted traitor. He had originally been the heir of the Zhenbei Marquis's household. Three years ago, the Zhenbei Marquis had committed treason, and his entire family was executed. A-Yu was the sole survivor, but he had been—"cruelly"—castrated by her father and sent into the palace…
Ah, in her previous life they had been so in love, yet every time things reached a critical moment, they were forced to stop. Seeing the deep, wounded look of restraint in his eyes, her heart ached for him. If only she had been reborn three years earlier…
"Focus on the ink." When Emperor Shunyuan looked up, he saw his daughter staring across the table, lost in a daze, while Yue Tingyu remained utterly focused and undisturbed. His gaze shifted back and forth between the two, and suddenly he asked his daughter—
"Ning'er, what do you think of A-Qi?"
Snapping back to her senses and hearing her father mention an unfamiliar name, Jun Suining was baffled, her confusion tinged with uncertainty. "A-Qi… who is that?"
A-Qi? That sounded a little familiar. It seemed… perhaps…
Emperor Shunyuan hadn't expected his daughter to be so forgetful. He cast a subtle glance at Yue Tingyu at his left, who was absorbed in the memorials. Seeing that the young man had finally lifted his head, the Emperor coughed lightly and reminded his daughter—
"A-Qi is one of My Hidden Guards."
A Hidden Guard?
Oh, that's right!
She remembered now. On New Year's Eve when she was fifteen, seeing that all her brothers had Hidden Guards, she had asked her father for one as well.
Her father had Hidden Guards in abundance, so he casually assigned a young man named A-Qi to follow her. But A-Qi held two posts at once and was also mute, so she could rarely find him.
In the two years that followed, A-Qi did protect her a few times, until her father's death—after which A-Qi vanished without a trace.
For Jun Suining, many years had passed, and she had long forgotten this unimportant figure. Now that she recalled him, all she remembered was that silver-white mask permanently "welded" to his face.
"Oh, A-Qi! Now I remember. Father was so stingy—only gave me half a person—" Jun Suining was answering along, but the moment her eyes fell on Yue Tingyu and she saw his dimmed expression, she suddenly changed her tune. "It was the Nine-Thousand-Year Lord who saved your daughter today. Father really ought to reward him."
Yue Tingyu took no pleasure in her words; instead, his face grew dark. "There is no need."
He was upset. Jun Suining could feel it plainly.
"A-Qi is highly skilled in martial arts," Emperor Shunyuan said, setting down what he held and regarding his daughter gently. "Tomorrow is the Dragon God Sacrifice. Have him protect you personally."
The Dragon God Sacrifice? Tomorrow?
Of course! The second day of the second lunar month, when the dragon raises its head—there was a folk custom of sacrificing to the Dragon God. A "Dragon Son" and a "Dragon Daughter" would lead the common people to the high altar by the river to worship the Dragon God, praying for a year free of natural disasters and floods. And this year, it happened to be Jun Suining's and her fifth younger brother's turn.
In her previous life, when she and the imperial younger brother ascended the altar, assassins had suddenly attacked, and the assassin made straight for the imperial brother. She had taken a blade for him and was wounded, and in the end the assassin was killed with a single strike by Yue Tingyu, who arrived midway.
Tomorrow, she certainly wouldn't care whether that heartless, ungrateful brother of hers lived or died—it would be good enough if she didn't take advantage of the chaos to add a few stabs of her own!
Jun Suining looked hopefully at the young man across from her. "Would the Nine-Thousand-Year Lord accompany me tomorrow?"
"Nan Sansi has many affairs to attend to. This servant will not go."
Yue Tingyu spoke up before Emperor Shunyuan could decide, his attitude cold and stiff.
Seeing this, Emperor Shunyuan didn't press the matter, but suddenly looked at his daughter meaningfully. "I'll have A-Qi protect you. What difference does it make?"
"But…" Jun Suining cast a resentful gaze toward Yue Tingyu, but he turned his face away.
Fine. If he won't go, so be it.
Only, in her previous life, A-Qi had never appeared, and this time… the originally set course of events had been altered. Who knew how tomorrow would end?
Emperor Shunyuan, noticing her gaze repeatedly drifting elsewhere, raised a memorial to the throne to hide the smile in his eyes.
Yue Tingyu's brow furrowed slightly. He rose, straightened his back, and said with lowered eyes, "There is still business at Nan Sansi. This servant takes his leave."
Watching his departing figure, Jun Suining felt that her road to winning him over was long and full of challenges!
The next day, before dawn, Shunjing City was already surging with crowds. Men and women, young and old, all carrying offerings in their hands, made their way toward the Jing River.
Beneath the high altar, Jun Suining wore a magnificent and heavy ceremonial gown, the phoenix embroidered in golden thread lifelike and vivid. Beneath her cloud-draped chignon, her hair fell gently, flowing like a waterfall. As the sun rose and golden light poured down, she seemed all the more sacred and inviolable.
At her side stood a young boy slightly shorter than she—her dear younger brother, Jun Yao.
Thirteen-year-old Prince Jun Yao had yet to shed his boyishness, a delicate young lad with rosy lips and white teeth. His innocent eyes gazed at Jun Suining with a touch of admiration, and his voice, cracking with the change of puberty, was slightly hoarse. "Imperial Sister, you look so beautiful today!"
In his eyes there seemed to be no imperial power, no scheming—only reverence for his sister.
If Jun Suining hadn't been killed by him once already, she really might have believed the boy was pure and innocent. But a person never rots in a single instant. Beneath that naive exterior, the heart that appeared so pure had long since been eroded and corrupted.
"Our A-Yao is very handsome too—you'll be taller than your sister soon enough." Jun Suining's palm gently stroked Jun Yao's shoulder, her gaze on his collar devoid of any warmth.
"Soon I'll be able to protect Imperial Sister!" Jun Yao, noticing nothing amiss in her expression, beamed with joy.
When the time came, the two siblings stood on either side of the stairway, dozens of meters apart. Jun Suining stepped up onto the high altar one step at a time, like a fairy pursuing the light.
"Honoring—the—Dragon—God—"
The high priest's drawn-out intonation was solemn and sacred. The common people knelt down in prayer one after another. Upon the high altar, Jun Suining and Jun Yao moved in unison, kneeling with flawless etiquette upon the rush cushions.
Waves surged in the Jing River, and a giant dragon carved from ancient wood emerged, awe-inspiring and majestic.
Dark clouds suddenly gathered overhead, and a drizzle of rain began to fall. With a "shing," a black-clad assassin sprang onto a wooden post and, using the momentum, launched himself toward the high altar, reaching Jun Yao's side in an instant—the sharp blade about to tear through Jun Yao's clothing.
Terrified screams suddenly erupted from the crowd. The common people fell into chaos, and the defending soldiers were shoved back and forth.
Jun Suining knelt calmly on the rush cushion as if nothing had happened, when a sudden thought struck her. She turned her head and saw, standing at her side at some unknown point, a silver-white-masked youth.
The eighteen-year-old youth, ever appearing and vanishing like a ghost, wore a fitted dark-violet outfit. His figure was tall and slender, his black hair tied high and cascading down the back of his head, giving him an air of carefree ease.
A-Qi was his father the Emperor's Hidden Guard, yet when the prince met with danger, he hadn't lifted a finger to help—which rather surprised Jun Suining.
She tilted her head up and met A-Qi's gaze directly, though the mask hid what kind of eyes he had. She could only faintly glimpse the coldness and indifference in his pupils.
"Your—Your Highness! Sister—"
Jun Yao's terrified, hoarse cries rang out. His fine clothes stained with blood, he lunged toward Jun Suining—
Jun Suining instinctively frowned. Even if she didn't block the blade for him, he would still bring trouble.
The youth at her side moved without a sound. Steadily, he rose onto the tips of his toes and soared upward like a light breeze, leaping through the air.
With a whoosh, he drew twin blades from his waist in midair, their edges flashing cold light. In the briefest of moments, he subdued the relentless assassin to the ground.
Meanwhile, Jun Yao had already thrown himself before Jun Suining, looking shaken and seeking comfort. "Sister, I'm hurt!"
"Don't be afraid. The assassin has been subdued." Jun Suining patted his wound, speaking with feigned concern.
"Hiss!"
Ignoring the disgruntled look on the person in her arms, Jun Suining watched as A-Qi pinned the assassin down. Yet something felt subtly wrong, and fleeting fragments she couldn't grasp flashed through her mind.
She looked down from the altar. Most of the crowd had already dispersed, and among them she found no trace of A-Yu.
In her past life, A-Yu had come, and he had killed the assassin.
Today, A-Yu had not come, and the assassin had been captured alive by A-Qi.
Everything seemed to have changed…
Yet there was one thing that had changed in neither the past life nor this one…
Jun Suining lowered her head, looked at Jun Yao, who was grimacing in pain, and said slowly—
"A-Yao, where is your Hidden Guard?"