Chapter 4
Edward Quan ·
Writing home wasn’t, of course, to complain.
If Father learned I had suffered this in the prince’s residence, with his temper he might bring troops and flatten the place.
I only wanted to remind certain people that I had never lacked support.
My brush flew. The letter contained ordinary greetings, questions about Father and my elder brother at the frontier, and amusing news from the capital.
Only at the end did I casually add:
[The cousin in this household accidentally soiled the snow-fox cloak you gave me. I was heartbroken and burned it. Please don’t blame me.]
Enough.
Father was intelligent enough to see the storm beneath those calm lines.
I folded and sealed the letter carefully, pressing the Shen private seal into red wax.
“Send someone north immediately. Eight-hundred-li urgent relay.”
“Yes.”
No sooner had I finished than someone kicked open the courtyard gate.
Xiao Jingyan strode in, carrying the cold with him.
He had settled Liu Ruyue. Now he had come to settle accounts with me.
Seeing the sealed family letter on the table, his pupils contracted.
“You wrote to your father?”
3
A trace of panic entered his voice, unnoticed even by him.
“Must I report to Your Highness before writing to my own father?”
I handed the letter to the guard beside me.
“Leave immediately.”
“Yes!”
He turned to go.
“Stop!”
Xiao Jingyan shouted.
The guard’s step faltered briefly, but he didn’t stop. He quickly vanished through the gate.
Under my father’s household rules, my orders came first.
Xiao Jingyan’s face turned dreadful.
He stared at me like an enraged beast backed into a corner.
“What do you want, Shen Qingning?”
“What do I want?”
I met his gaze calmly.
“I should be asking you.”
“Do you want to depose me for your dear cousin? Or have my father’s three hundred thousand soldiers drag your residence down with it?”
“Unreasonable!”
Cornered by my words, he lost all restraint.
“When did I ever say I wanted to depose you?”
“Must you make such a scene?”
“A scene?”
I laughed softly.
“All I have done is defend my dignity as your consort.”
“You’re the one who repeatedly humiliates his wife for an outsider.”
“Ruyue isn’t an outsider!”
He immediately objected.
“She’s the only child my aunt left in this world!”
“Before she died, she entrusted her to me.”
“I promised to look after her!”
At last, his true feelings came out.
So that was it.
A responsibility carried from a deathbed promise.
Looking at him, I suddenly felt a little sad.
“So looking after her means bringing her here, giving her the finest food and clothes, letting her provoke your wife, and then supporting her?”
“I…”
He had no answer.
“Have you considered that this care without limits harms her rather than helps?”
“You’ve made her lose sight of her position, boundaries, and rules. She naively thinks your protection lets her do anything here.”
“Today, I only had her slapped twenty times.”
“If she remains so ignorant and insults the empress dowager or empress in the palace someday, what do you think she’ll lose then—her dignity, or her head?”