The Eldest Princess frowned sternly and flung the paper with the poem at Du Heng, scolding,
“You haven’t even married me yet, and you’ve already secretly investigated this princess’s private name. What are you plotting?”
“Could it be that all your talk about breaking off the engagement just now was only to toy with this princess?”
Du Heng felt the spiritual pressure around him suddenly drop. The air beside the Eldest Princess rippled, and brilliant golden spiritual energy pressed down on him.
If his cultivation were as weak as it appeared on the surface, he would never have been able to withstand even this spiritual pressure.
Du Heng forced sweat to break out on his forehead. He shifted from standing upright beside the bed to stumbling back a few steps as though he were overwhelmed, confident that he had not given himself away.
“Your Highness, is there some misunderstanding?”
Du Heng’s first reaction was disbelief. What was going on? How had he supposedly come to know her name?
In the short time he had spent with the Eldest Princess, he had learned that she was willful and vicious, but she should not be so moody as to fabricate a charge just to question him.
The Great Luo Dynasty’s rites decreed that an unmarried woman’s private name had to be kept secret. The more noble the woman, the stricter the rule. Only close family could know it; outsiders could hardly learn it, much less the private name of the exalted Eldest Princess.
The Eldest Princess’s aura suddenly turned oppressive. Her pale gold eyes flashed coldly as she glared at him and then said with a light laugh,
“A misunderstanding? What, are you saying this princess has wronged you?”
Du Heng found it utterly baffling but still nodded. “That must be it. After all, I truly did not know Your Highness’s private…”
“You don’t think one homophone character for ‘yu’ can fool me, do you?”
The Eldest Princess’s coquettish accusation rang out.
Hearing the word “homophone,” Du Heng looked down at the poem he had just written on the paper in his hand.
After thinking for a moment, the part that most resembled a name was…
“Yun… Shuyu…?”
The Eldest Princess kicked him in indignation. “How dare you say it out loud?”
“This princess underestimated you. I actually thought you were a kind and honest person. I never imagined you would be so bold as to write a poem to tease this princess!”
She kicked him with her bare, delicate little foot. It did not hurt at all, but it confirmed that he really had written the Eldest Princess’s private name. Du Heng shook his head dazedly and answered the Eldest Princess.
“But I truly didn’t know…”
Could such a coincidence even exist? He had written it on a whim and ended up writing her private name?
Seeing his stunned expression, the Eldest Princess suddenly wanted to tease him again. She leaned close to him, her pretty face inches from his, and spoke with a smile.
“What, Lord Consort? Does that mean you and this princess are deeply fated, or even a match made in heaven? Or do our hearts connect so closely that your subconscious can peek into this princess’s thoughts? So you casually wrote a poem, and the first three characters revealed this princess’s private name?”
Before Du Heng could answer, the Eldest Princess continued,
“Young Lord Du is quite good at playing hard to get, hmm? If it were some ordinary girl, wouldn’t she have been completely charmed and fooled by you?”
The Eldest Princess had pinned yet another accusation on Du Heng. Deliberately ignoring her erratic train of thought, Du Heng stepped back to avoid her lovely face and said calmly,
“I have no such intention.”
He may have written it, but what had not happened simply had not happened. Even if it was hard to prove, he could not admit to it. That would be nothing but fabrication.
“In the Great Luo Dynasty, no one outside the royal family should know Your Highness’s private name. My father spent the past few years on military campaigns outside the capital. Your Highness returned to court five years ago, so my father could not possibly know Your Highness’s private name. In recent years, I have been seeking the Dao at Ruo Xian Pavilion and have not returned to Great Luo, so I have had even less opportunity to learn Your Highness’s private name.”
Du Heng defended himself calmly and rationally, with clear reasoning.
When the Eldest Princess heard Du Heng say he had no such intention, meaning he had not intended to trick her, she felt a little displeased. But after thinking it over, she also realized it probably had not been intentional on Du Heng’s part.
Her Imperial Uncle might be mischievous by nature, but he doted on her. He could not possibly have told Du Heng her private name.
And Du Heng had made it obvious from the start that he was not interested in her. She had deliberately teased him, but he still kept his distance, and she could see that clearly.
He had not known her before, but she had heard quite a bit about him.
From what she remembered, Du Heng did not seem like the kind of person with ill intentions.
Besides, the angry expression she had just put on was only meant to scare him and see whether she could bluff his thoughts out of him. He had shown no signs of guilt at all. If so, was it really just a coincidence?
The Eldest Princess bit her lip, then parted her vermilion lips and softly recited the poem.
“Yun Shuyu, wind-woven moon…”
After murmuring it a few times, her bright, shimmering eyes gradually filled with satisfaction and excitement. The corner of her gaze secretly flicked toward Du Heng. He was still standing there as calmly as ever.
Hmm… handsome, gifted in poetry and learning, gentle in temperament, neither humble nor arrogant. She had deliberately tormented him, and because he had been at fault first, he had yielded at every turn… She had also heard from her Imperial Uncle that his cultivation talent was unmatched by countless others.
He was just a little lazy…
Interesting… This man was truly interesting! Just as she had expected and hoped, he had not disappointed her.
The light in her phoenix eyes grew brighter, as if she had discovered something fascinating.
If that was the case, then she absolutely could not let him break off this marriage.
“Cough, cough!”
The Eldest Princess cleared her throat in a pretentious manner, put on the air of a magnanimous lord, turned her head away, and hummed lightly, no longer pressing Du Heng.
“Hmph… fine.”
“Copy this poem onto that screen for me. This princess still wants to look at it later. As long as this princess is satisfied, I will forgive you this once.”
Du Heng was still marveling at such a coincidence and did not notice the Eldest Princess’s series of small expressions.
“Thank you, Your Highness.”
Du Heng left the Eldest Princess’s bed and walked over to the screen. Only when he was far from her did he finally feel relieved.
That bad woman was beautiful, yes, but she was too aggressive with him. Ever since he entered the palace, she had shown no sense of distance at all and had been tormenting him in every possible way.
He was not afraid of people who came at him hard, but the Eldest Princess’s combination of soft and hard tactics was something he could not handle.
Come to think of it, he had not offended her before, had he?
Du Heng picked up the brush and glanced absently at the poem he had written. There could not be anyone else’s name hidden in it, could there?
『Su Muzhe · Lonely Cloud』
『Cloud-scattered rain, wind-woven moon, silence fills the sky, and the heavens are like shattered frost.』
『Morning mist in the dawn, evening snow in the dusk, walking together through hardships, a lone cloud keeps company with the coming night.』
Just as he was about to write it onto the screen, the Eldest Princess spoke up.
“I didn’t ask you earlier, so why does this poem only have the first stanza?”
She had noticed it from the beginning, but the matter of her private name had drawn her attention away.
Du Heng turned back and smiled. “I left the second stanza blank on my own initiative. I wanted Your Highness to fill it in.”
“This princess never said I would write a poem for you.” The Eldest Princess pouted and gave him a sidelong glare.
“I have been exhausted from traveling these past two days. My mind isn’t working well, and I am afraid I would leave it half-finished. It would be better for Your Highness to personally complete the second stanza, so this poem is not wasted.”
Du Heng’s words carried a faint hint of complaint, clearly accusing the Eldest Princess of being the reason he had been tormented all night since yesterday.
He was easygoing by nature, but he was not without a temper.
Still, he could only hint indirectly for the Eldest Princess to complete the poem. It was not really revenge.
He had deliberately written only the first stanza to test the Eldest Princess.
She had told him to write a poem, and he had written one, but he had not finished it. He wanted to see how she would handle him.
Maybe she would get angry again?
The matter of her private name had been an accident. But leaving only half a poem was genuinely bold. At the very least, it showed fearless innocence; at worst, it was defiance and deception toward the royal family.
The Eldest Princess leaned sideways on the bed and said lazily,
“Lord Consort really knows how to cut corners.”
“I truly am tired, but I also wanted to witness Your Highness’s learning.” Du Heng did not hide his intention.
Adding yesterday’s accident, this must have been the third or fourth time he had provoked the Eldest Princess, right?
“Since you really have been traveling hard, this princess will not hold it against you this time.”
She seemed… to be in a pretty good mood?
Du Heng’s expression stiffened.
No, you’re supposed to be angry!
I’m practically giving up here… why don’t you just disdainfully break off the engagement…
The Eldest Princess finished speaking, then picked up her poetry anthology again, lowered her eyelids, and started reading.
His plan having failed, Du Heng curled his lip.
Tsk… He should have just admitted to secretly investigating her private name.
If he had not genuinely been ignorant of the Eldest Princess’s private name, and if he had not wanted to bear some inexplicable charge, he might have made a clumsy denial and taken the blame.
Maybe then the furious Eldest Princess would have called off the marriage?
The Eldest Princess’s gaze slid toward Du Heng from the corner of her eye. Seeing his frustrated expression, she could not help but want to laugh.
Du Heng, hearing that she had agreed, handed the paper and brush back to her, wanting her to complete the second stanza.
“Lord Consort, write it on the screen first. When this princess feels like completing it, I will naturally help you fill it in. Make sure the handwriting is good-looking, or this princess will not let you off.”
“Yes.”
Du Heng twitched the corner of his mouth. It seemed that the conscientious Eldest Princess in private might actually be somewhat similar to him.
Just now, she had not even wanted to take a few steps, and now she was unwilling to use her brain to fill in a poem. Utterly lazy.
But since she had no intention of breaking off the engagement, at least she was not using it as an excuse to torment him further.
The calligraphy, however, was truly a challenge for Du Heng.
He was good at everything, but his handwriting was simply unsightly.
Du Heng did his best to make the characters look decent. Then, according to the rules, he signed his name in the lower right corner of the screen. By the time he was done, half an incense stick had already passed.
“Shall I write Your Highness’s signature as well?”
He turned to look at the Eldest Princess, while the hem of the screen had already left room for the second stanza.
The Eldest Princess was now half-closing her eyes, holding a book of poems in her hand.
Du Heng had a sudden realization. No wonder she had suddenly asked him to write a poem. She must have seen the scroll on her bed and come up with this on a whim.
The Eldest Princess spoke softly as she turned the pages,
“Write mine together too. Mm, remember not to get it wrong…”
A strand of spiritual power shot from her fingertip into Du Heng’s chest.
The spiritual power traced elegant, graceful calligraphy stroke by stroke across Du Heng’s chest.
Du Heng silently recited in his heart, Yun Shuyu?