Chapter 5
Edward Quan ·
My words struck him like icy water poured over his head.
He stared.
His lips moved several times.
In the end, not one word came.
I turned to the window and looked into the heavy night.
“I’m tired.”
“Please leave, Your Highness.”
A dismissal.
He stood motionless, seeming to digest what I had said.
After a long time, he spoke hoarsely.
“Qingning, must we… be like this?”
Weariness, and an almost imperceptible weakness, entered his voice.
Once, I might have softened.
My heart had gone cold with the wine spilled in the Spring Garden.
“Chunhe, see our guest out.”
I didn’t turn.
She stepped before him and bowed.
“Your Highness, please.”
He looked deeply at my back.
Then he left without another word.
Only afterward did I slowly sit again.
Waves of cold spread through me.
Chunhe put another layer around me, worried.
“Have you truly decided?”
I nodded.
“The moment he told me to give way to her.”
From today, I would no longer put all my heart into my husband.
I was the legitimate daughter of the General’s household.
I was Shen Qingning.
I would take back everything that belonged to me.
First, control of this household.
Early the next morning, without waiting for Xiao Jingyan, I went to the front hall.
The steward and all the managers were waiting.
Liu Ruyue was there too.
Among the crowd, thick rouge covered her swollen cheeks but couldn’t hide the handprints.
She lowered her head.
Frail and pitiful, as though terribly wronged.
I went straight to the head seat.
“From today, I personally manage the inner household and all accounts.”
“Every department’s ledgers must reach my courtyard within one double-hour.”
“Without my written order, not so much as a needle or thread is to be issued.”
Everyone stared.
Including Xiao Jingyan, who had arrived late.
“Nonsense!”
He entered, frowning.
“Steward Liu has always managed this. You’re unwell. Why exhaust yourself?”
“I was unwell.”
“Now I’m better.”
I looked at him, my voice calm.
“Or do you think I cannot manage this home?”
“That isn’t what I—”
“Good.”
I cut him off.
“Steward Liu, hand over the storeroom keys and management tallies.”
He had served here for years. Looking at Xiao Jingyan, he seemed troubled.
My gaze cooled.
“What? Do my words no longer carry weight?”
He trembled.
Not daring another look at the prince, he hurriedly removed a large bunch of keys from his waist and presented them with both hands.
I took them.
Metal rang against metal.
It sounded like the announcement of a new era.
Behind the crowd, Liu Ruyue bit her lip white. Her nails nearly pierced her palms.
I knew what cutting her spending meant.
Like cutting off her limbs.
Only the first step.
Looking at Xiao Jingyan’s livid face, I felt nothing stir.
Our battle had only just begun.
My first act after taking back control was to check every ledger.
A shocking discovery made me throw one into his face.