Chapter 8

She thought for a moment. “Just like the teachers at our girls’ school… Oh, speaking of which, I still have homework I haven’t finished!”

“Wait here a moment.” She turned and ran back to her courtyard, then brought out paper and a brush. “We don’t have anything else to do. Why don’t you do my homework for me?”

Ta Thuat wanted to refuse.

He wanted to say that he shouldn’t do something like that.

His lips moved.

In the end, he still took the brush and sat in the pavilion to do her homework for her.

Two incense sticks later,

the young woman happily looked over the pages, then went back to fetch a jewelry box.

“You copied my handwriting so well! Pick anything you like. They’re all valuable.”

Ta Thuat fell silent again. He was about to say he didn’t need anything, but when he turned to look,

the young woman had happily run off to play with the cat.

Ta Thuat lowered his eyes and picked up a jade ring from the box. It was too small to fit his finger.

He tucked it into his sleeve and asked her, “Then what kind of person do you like?”

It was clear that plenty of people had asked her that before.

The young woman barely cared. She lazily teased the cat. “Someone like me.”

“What does that mean?” Ta Thuat paused.

She looked up and winked playfully. “Someone whose thoughts other people can’t guess.”

Ta Thuat nodded.

He wasn’t someone who liked forcing others.

If Tan Tuyet Tan didn’t like a person like him,

he wouldn’t insist.

Everyone had taught him that a gentleman must master himself and follow propriety.

But Ta Thuat never expected that the person Tan Tuyet Tan would ultimately marry was Bui Chieu Dan.

There was no denying it.

Bui Chieu Dan did fit the kind of person Tan Tuyet Tan had described.

Ta Thuat and Bui Chieu Dan had once become enemies.

When they were studying at the Imperial Academy, several princes had led a group of noble-born young men in bullying Bui Chieu Dan.

At the time, Bui Chieu Dan had only lowered his eyes and said nothing.

Later, everyone who had once provoked him—apart from the princes—died one after another not long afterward. It caused quite a stir.

But in the end, the matter was forgotten.

One of the victims had been close to Ta Thuat. He had people investigate, but the results were disappointing.

Later, Ta Thuat confronted Bui Chieu Dan and demanded an explanation.

Bui Chieu Dan had replied indifferently, “Stay out of other people’s business. You might be the next one to die.”

Ta Thuat still refused to give up.

His people and another secret faction clashed repeatedly, each restraining the other. Many more people died.

The enmity between them had become irreconcilable.

The emperor was growing old, but, mindful of how a crown prince of the previous dynasty had abused his authority, he had never named an heir of his own.

Although the Marquis of Sung Ninh’s household belonged to the emperor’s faction, the powerful maternal clans of several princes still probed them obliquely, trying to learn which side they would support.

Yet no one had ever imagined

that the throne would eventually fall to Bui Chieu Dan.

His rebellion succeeded. Corpses piled up everywhere, and the Sixth Prince ascended the throne.

The entire Sung Ninh household was spared execution and merely exiled to the northern frontier. This was only to reassure the former officials who had submitted to the new regime. In truth, assassination attempts continued all along the road.

Before biting his tongue and killing himself, an assassin who had failed to kill Ta Thuat said only,

“I’m here to relieve His Majesty and Her Majesty of their burdens.”

Ta Thuat immediately realized that Tan Tuyet Tan had a hand in it.

Later,

when he heard that Bui Chieu Dan had died, Ta Thuat wasn’t surprised.

Bui Chieu Dan had been abused from childhood, leaving him with countless ailments. He was cold and inscrutable, with unfathomable schemes, yet he never knew how to take care of his own health.

Besides, he and Tan Tuyet Tan had no children.

The remaining members of the imperial clan began to stir. They joined forces with Ta Thuat’s father and led troops back to retake the palace.

Several years had passed since they last met.

Tan Tuyet Tan had grown somewhat thinner. Her face was deathly pale, her body so frail she seemed about to fall.

Because Bui Chieu Dan had died.

It had to be said that while he was at the frontier, Ta Thuat had heard many stories about the two of them.

The tyrant and his wicked empress, both shamelessly domineering.

Before he arrived, Ta Thuat had even considered asking Tan Tuyet Tan:

Had she truly loved Bui Chieu Dan, or did she only love being empress?

If it was the latter… If it was the latter, then…

But the moment he saw her in person, Ta Thuat could almost be certain.

She truly had feelings for Bui Chieu Dan.

She had actually fallen in love with that madman.

Tan Tuyet Tan looked at him coldly. “Too bad you’re still alive.”

She poured all her resentment over Bui Chieu Dan’s death onto him.

He wanted to tell her she couldn’t treat him like that—that it was completely unreasonable.

“If only you had been the one who died,” she said again.

Ta Thuat had always been calm.

Nearly every emotional upheaval in the first half of his life had begun with Tan Tuyet Tan.

Suddenly, anger and resentment surged inside him.

Tan Tuyet Tan had always been so cruel to him.

Why should Bui Chieu Dan have been able to win her love so easily?

Ta Thuat smiled faintly. “I’m afraid that won’t be what you want. I’m right here, alive and well.”

And I’m the one who has you now.

Ta Thuat ignored every objection, kept Tan Tuyet Tan by his side, and imprisoned her.

He forced himself on her, taking a possessive satisfaction in keeping her captive.

He thought Tan Tuyet Tan must hate him.