Chapter 3
Edward Quan ·
Qin Wanrou hurried forward and advised softly, “Don’t speak foolishly in a moment’s anger. Your marriage to His Highness has been understood for a long time. The whole capital knows.”
My lips curved. My eyes were frost.
“Understood? Why don’t I know? Our family has never received a formal marriage document. Do a few empty words count as a betrothal?”
In my previous life, that verbal promise had bound me forever.
I poured my heart into him, willingly clearing his path and raising him step by step to power.
Only at death did I understand: without a marriage document, I could be discarded at any time.
Zhao Yi had no answer.
Every word was true.
He had never given our family a proper formal agreement.
The emperor’s face darkened.
After a while, his authoritative voice filled the hall.
“Qin Yue, look up.”
I slowly met his fathomless eyes.
“Tell me. Why the Seventh?”
I faced the throne calmly, neither arrogant nor servile.
“Even in adversity, he retains a gentleman’s bearing. Gain and loss do not change his purpose. Honor and disgrace do not change his heart. I respect that character.”
An answer to the emperor.
An invisible slap to Zhao Yi.
True character was never determined by whether a body was whole or disabled, nor by rank.
In the corner, the silent man finally moved.
Zhao Heng turned his wheelchair.
Its wheels crossed the cold stone slowly.
He left the shadows and entered the bright center.
Every eye turned to him.
Pity.
Contempt.
People waiting to laugh.
He seemed not to care.
His chair stopped before me.
He looked down at the young woman kneeling on cold stone.
His voice was calm as a winter lake.
“Miss Qin, have you thought carefully?”
“I’m a cripple.”
“Marry me, and the whole capital will mock you.”
“No great power.”
“No brilliant future.”
I looked up.
There was no inferiority or gloom in his eyes.
Only depth and composure, as though he had seen through the world.
I knew he was testing me.
Meeting his gaze, I answered slowly.
“I have thought carefully.”
“Wealth and splendor are only passing clouds.”
“All I want is one faithful heart.”
He was silent for a long time.
Then a faint smile appeared.
Like early spring ice finally thawing.
He turned to the emperor and bowed slightly.
“Father.”
“I am willing to marry her.”
The guests exclaimed and murmured.
Zhao Yi clenched his fist until the joints cracked.
The emperor looked deeply at me, then Zhao Heng, and finally seemed to decide.
“Very well. Since you love each other, I grant it. Let my decree be issued: Qin Yue, legitimate daughter of the Qin family, is appointed Seventh Consort. Choose an auspicious wedding date.”
Zhao Yi’s face went completely dark.
03
The banquet ended unhappily.
I became the capital’s greatest joke.
Father summoned me to his study. As I entered, a tea cup smashed at my feet into several pieces.
“Disobedient girl!”
He trembled with anger.
“Do you know what you did? You threw away our family’s dignity!”
Mother stood crying beside him.
“Yue’er, what are you thinking?”
“What’s wrong with the crown prince? How could you reject him publicly?”
“And that Seventh Prince…”
Her voice caught.
To everyone, he was a disabled man with no future.
I had destroyed my own prospects.
I knelt on the cold floor without defending myself.
They wouldn’t understand.
I couldn’t tell them I had died once.
Or that the crown prince I had yearned for day and night was the executioner who destroyed our family.