Chapter 3
Edward Quan ·
Many people wanted this chance to become close to her.
The moment she finished, a quick-witted girl praised her kindness.
“Such devotion to your sister. Truly worthy of our future Crown Princess.”
“Kindness makes a face more beautiful. I can see something of a bodhisattva in the eldest Miss Gu. No wonder His Highness chose her at first sight.”
My sister grew still more pleased.
“You.”
Someone suddenly pointed at me.
“Your sister treats you so well. You ought to come and thank her.”
The others chimed in.
When I remained where I was with my eyes lowered, they even reached out to pull me over.
Just as the situation was about to get out of hand, a young eunuch's loud announcement rang out from outside.
“His Highness the Crown Prince!”
10
Everyone immediately stopped and knelt.
The Crown Prince raised a hand, signaling us to rise.
Among the crowd, my head bowed, I saw only a pair of black shoes pass before me.
I thought he would go straight to my sister.
But the shoes suddenly stopped.
Then they turned and came to a halt in front of me.
“Miss Gu.”
There was a smile in his voice, a familiarity that made it seem we had met before.
“Your wedding is so close. How do you still have time for banquets?”
“And you're not wearing a veil today. Are you feeling better?”
So my sister really had written to tell him about my marriage.
Bitterness rose in my throat, but I could only answer respectfully.
“How could I dare miss the Eldest Princess's birthday, Your Highness?”
He laughed softly.
“We're all family. Aunt is the gentlest of people. You'll see.”
Then he looked up.
Only now did he notice the strange silence around us.
Everyone was staring.
My sister bit her lip, crushing her handkerchief.
The girls who had been flattering her exchanged glances, suddenly at a loss for words.
After a long while, someone finally forced a smile and ventured, “Your Highness is most kind, to be so considerate toward your future sister-in-law.”
“Sister-in-law?”
The Crown Prince glanced at her, then at me.
“The eldest Miss Gu is my Crown Princess. Why would you call her my sister-in-law?”
Shock swept through the gathering.
The girl who had spoken stammered, pointing at my sister.
“But, Your Highness…”
“But…”
“This is the eldest Miss Gu.”
My sister's face was white as paper, yet she still forced a smile.
“Has there been some misunderstanding, Your Highness?”
“I'm the one who is to marry you.”
The Crown Prince looked around.
At my sister, then at me.
His voice grew lower.
“What misunderstanding?”
“I chose my own Crown Princess. How could I mistake her?”
11
Since the position of Crown Princess was involved, someone soon went to fetch the emperor and empress.
Mother and the other ladies followed them into the garden.
After hearing the Crown Prince's account, His Majesty frowned and ordered the portrait album from the selection brought over.
On the back of my portrait…
My sister's name was written plainly.
The truth was clear.
I was the one the Crown Prince had chosen from the beginning.
The name on the back of the portrait had been wrong.
And so the decree had named the wrong person.
My sister had collapsed to the ground.
A strange silence settled over the garden.
Then Mother suddenly stepped forward.
“Your Majesty, an imperial decree has already been issued. How can it be changed so lightly?”
“One chooses a wife for virtue and a concubine for beauty.”
“My younger daughter may be beautiful, but she's arrogant and difficult to teach. She's always showing her face in public. She truly isn't suited to palace life.”
“His Highness must not choose by beauty alone.”
She spoke with such sincerity, as though she truly had the Crown Prince's interests at heart.
“Hah.”
The Eldest Princess, who had watched everything from beginning to end, gave a scornful laugh.
“If it were truly an accident of fate, that would be one thing.”
“But each household submits its own portraits. How could the names be wrong?”
“Could Madam Gu have favored her elder daughter and deliberately switched them?”
Mother's voice immediately became urgent and shrill.
“I would never dare deceive Your Majesty.”
“The painter must have been careless and copied the name incorrectly.”
The emperor gave no sign of what he thought. He merely summoned the painter.
A middle-aged man was soon brought in.
The moment he entered, he fell to his knees, trembling violently.
Before His Majesty could question him, he confessed everything.
“Spare me, Your Majesty!”
“Madam Gu gave me fifty taels of gold and told me to replace the second young miss's name on the back of her portrait with the eldest young miss's.”
“I gave in to greed for a moment. I never meant to deceive Your Majesty.”
“If I'd known His Highness would choose that very portrait, I wouldn't have dared, not for anything in the world!”
Mother had not expected the truth to come out so quickly.
She went pale. Her lips moved several times, but no words came.
My sister looked still more dazed, murmuring over and over, “So… the person the Crown Prince chose was never me.”
“No wonder. No wonder Mother insisted I wear a veil that day…”
“She knew all along…”
12
The two portraits lay open on the stone table.
The Eldest Princess went over to study them, then suddenly laughed.
“I've just remembered an old story.”
“When General Gu placed third in the palace examinations, my father intended to marry him to Grand Preceptor Lu's legitimate daughter. General Gu refused, saying he already had a betrothed at home.”
“Then, at a banquet, Lady Zhao happened to fall into the water and dragged General Gu in with her.”
“She said that if he wouldn't marry her, she could only kill herself.”
“The next thing I heard, General Gu had married Lady Zhao. Afterward, he requested a posting at the frontier and stayed away from the capital for years.”
She turned toward Mother with a meaningful look.
“Has Lady Zhao grown so accustomed to forcing people's hands that she tried the same trick with her daughter?”
“Did she think that once her daughter was married into the palace, the Crown Prince would have to swallow it, just as General Gu did?”
The garden was utterly silent.
Mother went ashen and abruptly dropped to her knees.
“Your Majesty! I changed the portraits alone. My elder daughter knew nothing.”
“I was wrong, but I truly meant well!”
“Shanzhen is too beautiful. Everyone has spoiled her since she was little, and she's arrogant and unruly. How could she be the mother of the realm?”
“Shanyi is steady and dignified. She's the one best suited to be Crown Princess!”
“They're both daughters of the Gu family. Why must His Highness ignore their characters and insist on the prettier one?”
She pointed at me. There was even pain in her eyes, as though she truly pitied me.
Everyone followed her gesture.
They all seemed to wonder how dreadful my character must be for my own mother to despise me so much.
“Character?”
The Crown Prince suddenly stepped forward.
His voice was not loud, but every word was clear.
“If we're discussing character, I have even less reason to admire the eldest Miss Gu.”
“Two years ago, I went to inspect the frontier. Assassins attacked me, and I was separated from my guards and left wandering the streets.”
“I'd also been poisoned. My appearance was so frightening that ordinary people kept away.”
He paused.
His gaze rested on me.
“The second Miss Gu found me by the roadside and brought me back. She treated my wounds and cured the poison without charging a single coin.”
“The eldest Miss Gu, on the other hand, complained that I had dirtied the family's carriage.”
“She also accused her sister of meddling, saving a man so hideous.”
My sister suddenly looked up. Her voice rose so sharply it distorted.
“That beggar was you?”
“Impossible! How could you be that beggar? How…”
The Crown Prince ignored her and continued.
“To escape my pursuers, I had to leave before I could say goodbye.”
“I thought I might never see the second Miss Gu again. Then, unexpectedly, I found her portrait among the candidates.”
“So I hurried to ask Father for a marriage decree.”
“Besides, the eldest Miss Gu has no pollen allergy. Yet on the day of the betrothal rites, she obeyed Lady Zhao and veiled her face to meet me.”
“Did she truly notice nothing at all about the altered portraits?”
“She merely pretended not to know and let matters take their course.”
The emperor spoke gravely.
“So from the very beginning, the Crown Prince meant to marry the second Miss Gu.”
His frown deepened, as though he was considering how to resolve the matter.
13
A commotion suddenly sounded beyond the garden.
The Marquis of Qing'an hurried in with someone beside him.
The man was travel-worn and had not even taken off his armor.
It was Father.
My tears fell at once.
I struggled to hold back the urge to run into his arms.
Father strode forward and knelt before the emperor.
“I, Gu Rongzhi, have failed to govern my household or restrain my wife. I beg Your Majesty to punish me.”
Lu Xianghe and Madam Lu hurried in too. Xianghe raised an eyebrow at me.
Mother had kept my marriage to the Li family completely secret.
Until a few days earlier, when the Li family's second son got drunk and boasted in a restaurant.
“The second Miss Gu is as beautiful as a fairy. In a few days, she'll be carried through the Li family's doors.”
“Then I, Li Deren, will be the Crown Prince's brother-in-law.”