“Your Highness, the Crown Princess, perhaps you could come at a different time.”
Eunuch Cao had already begun finding ways to usher her out.
Jiang Qingke hesitated for a moment, but in the end, she still couldn’t bring herself to ask about Ye Yan.
If she asked, it would make it seem as though she longed for his nightly visits.
Jiang Qingke turned to leave, but then she saw a young man in flowing white robes walking in through the ornamental gate.
The young man was tall and slender, roughly the same build as Jiang Qingke.
However, an exquisitely crafted silver mask covered most of his face above his thin lips with seamless precision.
Behind him followed two palace maids.
One maid carried a food box, while the other held a guqin.
As the young man approached, the eyes beneath the mask were fixed on Jiang Qingke.
When the white-robed young man reached her, he still observed proper etiquette and clasped his hands in a respectful bow toward her.
But… he didn’t utter a single word.
Not even something like “Greetings to the Crown Princess” or “May the Crown Princess be well.”
Just as Jiang Qingke was about to rebuke him for his rudeness, the young man made a series of hand gestures to Eunuch Cao.
Eunuch Cao responded with a beaming smile, bowing and scraping, as though they were on familiar, intimate terms.
“Is Young Master Murong feeling better?”
Young Master Murong nodded with a faint smile and gestured with his hands.
“That’s good to hear.”
Eunuch Cao added: “His Highness the Crown Prince has instructed that if Young Master Murong arrives, he may go straight in.”
Hearing this from the side, Jiang Qingke’s beautiful eyes widened as she glared directly at Eunuch Cao.
When others come, they can just go in and see him?
But when she, the legitimate Crown Princess, arrives, she has to come at a different time?
Jiang Qingke desperately wanted to whip someone.
But Young Master Murong merely curved his lips into a slight smile, nodded at her with a hint of a grin, and then, with an air of victory, held his head high and strode into Li Xuanyao’s study.
Jiang Qingke asked Eunuch Cao: “Is this Young Master Murong mute?”
“Reporting to the Crown Princess, although this Young Master Murong is mute, he is one of the Crown Prince’s advisors. His name is Murong Xi, and he is a frequent guest of His Highness.”
Jiang Qingke was puzzled.
“How can a mute serve as an advisor to the Crown Prince?”
Eunuch Cao smiled but said nothing.
It was clear he was unwilling to answer that question.
Jiang Qingke knew that if Eunuch Cao didn’t want to speak, no matter how much she asked, she wouldn’t get anything out of him.
She turned to leave.
Eunuch Cao bowed and followed closely behind, intending to escort her to the ornamental gate.
Jiang Qingke asked casually: “How is it that Eunuch Cao also understands sign language?”
“Reporting to the Crown Princess, most of the maids and eunuchs who serve His Highness are mute. In my daily duties, I inevitably have to interact with and train them, so I picked up some of it along the way.”
“Then… at night…”
Jiang Qingke paused, choosing her words carefully: “That young man—is he also mute?”
Eunuch Cao naturally knew who she was asking about.
He half-lowered his eyelids, wearing that same smile that didn’t reach his eyes.
“Forgive me for being so bold as to say one thing.”
“Bearing children for His Highness is the duty the Crown Princess should always keep in mind.”
“As for who the young man is who shares Your Highness’s chambers at night, or whether he is mute or not—the Crown Princess need not know, nor should she know.”
Jiang Qingke understood.
Eunuch Cao was reminding her to stay in her place as the Crown Princess.
She shot him a vicious glare.
As she reached the ornamental gate, Jiang Qingke faintly sensed someone watching her.
She turned around and happened to catch sight of Murong Xi standing by the latticed window, looking at her.
With the mask covering his face, Jiang Qingke found it hard to read his expression.
But there was something strange about this Young Master Murong.
Scrutiny, wariness—in any case, it wasn’t friendly. If anything, it carried a hint of hostility.
On the way back to Fengluanxuan, her maid Xiqing couldn’t help but murmur to Jiang Qingke: “Does Your Highness feel that Young Master Murong just now was very strange?”
“Very strange indeed.” Jiang Qingke nodded thoughtfully in agreement.
Xiqing glanced around, then leaned close to Jiang Qingke’s ear and whispered: “I wonder if Young Master Murong might be His Highness’s…”
Pausing as if weighing her words, Xiqing then pressed her lips to Jiang Qingke’s ear and softly uttered two words.
“Consort.”
Jiang Qingke had grown up playing in the military camps with her elder brother.
The camps were full of men, so she’d inevitably witnessed some jaw-dropping, bizarre affairs—she was long past being shocked by such things.
The moment Xiqing said it, she understood immediately.
Leave it to Xiqing—she certainly knew how to put things delicately.
Following Xiqing’s line of thought, the hostility radiating from Murong Xi earlier now made perfect sense.
Those who couldn’t see the light of day would naturally look down on her, the one who had been married in through proper rites.
…
Several more days passed, and Eunuch Cao personally came to Fengluan Hall, bringing with him a matron who could speak.
Before the matron even opened her mouth, Jiang Qingke had already guessed what Eunuch Cao wanted to ask.
Sure enough, the matron walked over to Xiqing and asked in a low voice: “Has the Crown Princess’s monthly cycle come this month?”
“Reporting to the matron, it has come.”
Hearing this, Eunuch Cao could barely hide the disappointment on his face.
His brows knitted tightly, like some meddlesome mother-in-law, as he stole a glance at Jiang Qingke’s belly.
Jiang Qingke happened to catch that look.
Eunuch Cao’s disdainful expression seemed to say that her belly wasn’t cooperating.
His master was the one who was lacking, yet he had the audacity to find fault with her?
Jiang Qingke, irritated, grabbed the whip beside her and cracked it sharply through the air with a single snap, startling Eunuch Cao into a shudder.
“Where exactly are you looking, Eunuch Cao?”
“Is my belly as Crown Princess something you’re allowed to set your eyes on?”
Jiang Qingke rose and cracked the whip again, snarling with full authority: “Looking for a beating, are you?”
Eunuch Cao and the old matron were forced to retreat step by step.
But Eunuch Cao wasn’t actually afraid of her.
After all, the Donggong housed those formidable Black-Armored Guards, and she wasn’t favored by Li Xuanyao anyway.
Still, on the surface, Eunuch Cao played his part to perfection.
He humbly apologized and groveled for a while, then withdrew with the matron in tow.
A few days later, once Jiang Qingke’s monthly cycle had passed, two or three more imperial physicians from the Imperial Medical Institute came in succession, taking turns to feel her pulse and prescribe medicine.
She couldn’t openly defy Li Xuanyao, so she’d quietly spar with him instead.
Not a single mouthful of that bitter, wretched medicinal brew did Jiang Qingke drink—she had Xiqing dump it all out.
**
That night.
Just as Jiang Qingke was about to lie down and rest, footsteps sounded outside the hall doors.
Moments later, maids and eunuchs filed in.
Some snuffed out the candles, some lit the incense, some collected the fire strikers.
Xiqing, under orders, took the silk blindfold and walked reluctantly to Jiang Qingke’s side.
Pouting, she said: “Crown Princess, it seems this month’s marital duties are about to begin again.”
Eunuch Cao also stepped forward at that moment.
“Reporting to the Crown Princess, His Highness the Crown Prince specifically had the Imperial Observatory calculate an auspicious date. Based on the Crown Princess’s birth chart and the timing of your monthly cycle, these next few days are the most optimal for the Crown Princess to conceive.”
Jiang Qingke picked up the leather whip and gave it a tug in Eunuch Cao’s direction, a smile that didn’t reach her eyes.
“Did the Imperial Observatory fail to calculate that your hide is itching for a whipping, Eunuch?”
Eunuch Cao smiled politely, flicked his horsetail whisk, and the Black-Armored Guards stationed outside the hall doors filed in with a rush.
The bedchamber, which had been quite spacious, suddenly felt crowded.
Outnumbered, Jiang Qingke knew she couldn’t win a fight.
Glancing at the two rows of Black-Armored Guards, she prudently set down her whip.
But she wasn’t about to lose face, so she sneered in a lazy, drawling tone.
“All of you are so capable at fighting—why don’t you go to the border and join the army to kill enemies? Standing around here as decorations to intimidate a weak woman—what kind of skill is that?”
Jiang Qingke took the blindfold from Xiqing’s hands and rose, heading toward the bed.
As she passed by a maidservant, she glanced at the woman’s waist, deliberately bumped into her, and with nimble fingers hooked deftly, easily stealing the fire striker from the maidservant’s sash.
……
The blindfold was on.
The candles were out.
The people had withdrawn.
The hall doors closed, then opened again. Night wind swept in, carrying the fragrance of flowers and ambergris, along with a faint, elusive scent of medicine, drifting subtly into the chamber.
It was a familiar presence.
Ye Yan had finally come.
Jiang Qingke held her breath and steadied her nerves, gripping the fire striker tightly in her hand.
Tonight, she was determined to see Ye Yan’s face.