Chapter 6

Noble Consort Yu was on bad terms with the Empress. If she learned about this, she certainly wouldn’t let it go.

“Besides, you have a weakness I can use against you. You’re a thief with sticky fingers. You stole the Grand Princess’s jewelry. What makes you think you can act so high and mighty with me?”

I couldn’t be bothered to argue with her.

“Then report me if you want.”

Everything had been wrong from the start.

The system wanted me to win over the Crown Prince, but I had chosen Gu Xing.

The system told me to use Noble Consort Yu to get rid of Qiu Yun, but instead I’d gotten myself injured.

I’d given up. I accepted that the system would erase me.

Gu Xing was the wrong path, but I’d followed it for more than ten years.

For the few days I had left, I wanted to follow my heart.

19

I asked Qingzhu to find me a needle and thread.

I planned to embroider a scented sachet.

I found a skilled embroidery matron and studied with her for two whole days.

I leaned by the window. The setting sun shone on the white jade hairpin in my hair.

“The Crown Prince doesn’t like plum blossoms.”

I heard the voice and looked up.

The Grand Princess was looking at the half-finished sachet in my hand.

“But I like plum blossoms.”

“But I remember you’ve always liked crabapple blossoms. Since when did you switch to plum?”

That was right. I didn’t like plum blossoms.

I liked the person standing beneath the plum tree.

If the one you loved wasn’t by your side, keeping a sachet to remind you of him only made the longing more painful.

I’d tried so hard to win over the Crown Prince, not just because I was afraid of dying.

I also wanted to stay a little longer.

Just a little longer.

I put my hands down to rise and pay my respects.

“May I ask why the Grand Princess has come?”

She held me by the shoulders.

“There’s no need for formalities.”

Then she smiled brightly.

“I’m here to catch a thief—the little pickpocket who stole my lovesick son’s heart.”

20

There were only three days left before the system’s deadline.

The Crown Prince knocked on my door.

I was surprised. I couldn’t understand why he’d show up now.

“Lin Qiao, do you remember where I first met you?”

I answered:

“In the imperial garden.”

The Crown Prince gave a cold laugh.

“Wrong. It was at the Hongyu Pavilion. You were hiding behind Gu Xing.”

I froze with the tea halfway raised. He smiled with satisfaction, then continued in an unhurried voice:

“You and Gu Xing have an improper relationship, yet you still dare covet the position of Crown Princess. You even carried on with him right under my nose. How could I tolerate that?”

“How did you find out?”

He pulled out a broken pipa string, stained with splashes of blood.

It belonged to Zhen Niang.

“I spoiled her for so long, only to find out she was Gu Xing’s spy. But she couldn’t endure the torture and confessed everything about your affair. So I let the worthless woman keep her life.”

“Isn’t becoming Crown Princess what you want? If you please me tonight, I’ll overlook your relationship with Gu Xing. I’ll even show mercy and make you my secondary consort. What do you say?”

I obediently nodded.

“Thank you, Your Highness.”

Then I went behind him as if to help him take off his outer robe.

The next instant,

a dagger pierced his heart from behind.

One strike. One life.

The system’s voice rang out again:

“Another one? Do you all think my place is full of bugs?”

Not long afterward, I heard the fighting outside grow louder and closer.

I smiled with satisfaction.

I’d bet right.

21

After my conversation with the Grand Princess, I learned

that she was like me.

She’d once been chosen by the system as someone to win over.

When she was fifteen, the system told her to pursue a frail, sickly young man.

It said he would become the top scholar in the imperial examinations.

Even if he did, his future prospects would still be limited.

She had realized early on that the young Emperor was suspicious by nature.

He quietly drove wedges between the civil officials and military commanders.

He cared only about keeping the imperial throne secure and let his ministers fight among themselves.

If this continued, it could only harm the realm.

As the Grand Princess, she wanted to seize power step by step. Her husband could not be a sickly man with little time to live.

So she abandoned the mission. Before the young man became the top scholar, she personally sent him to his death.

The system didn’t erase her.

Instead, it changed her target to Gu Xing’s father.

The long-standing feud between my father and Chancellor Gu was all an act, meant to make the Emperor lower his guard.

They made him believe the two men were always at odds.

Since they couldn’t possibly be on the same side, he could safely remain on the throne.

“Girl, I can see that you have no feelings for the Crown Prince, but you do care for Xing’er. Whatever the reason—whether you deliberately approached him or truly fell for him—the feelings are real.”

I was convinced.

There were no heroes or villains by nature.

The victor became king; the loser, a criminal.

22

The new Emperor ascended the throne, and the people accepted his rule.

I took off the heavy ceremonial robes and crown I’d worn for my investiture as Crown Princess and let out a small sigh of relief.

The next moment, Gu Xing, as familiar as ever, swept me up by the waist and carried me to the bed.

He gently massaged my injured ankle.

“Qiao Qiao, you worked hard today.”

“No matter how hard it was, it was worth it.”

As for the plan to seize the throne,

both my father and Gu Xing stubbornly refused to tell me even half of it.

The day Gu Xing saw blood on my skirt and the Crown Prince of the previous dynasty lying dead on the ground,

he dropped the sword in his hand and held me tight as I sat exhausted on the floor.

He squeezed so hard that the edges of his armor bruised my bones.

After that day, Gu Xing kept waking in the middle of the night.

Every time he woke, he had to make sure I was still beside him

before he could relax.

The investiture ceremony was over.

Gu Xing was the Crown Prince, and I was his rightful Crown Princess.

I was getting a little sleepy from his massage,

but he kept pestering me with the half-finished scented sachet.

“Qiao Qiao, you’re so heartless. You accepted my jade hairpin as a token of our love. It was so hard to get you to embroider a sachet for me, and you’ve only done half of it.”

I answered absentmindedly, eyes half closed:

“All right, all right. I’ll embroider whatever you want.”

“Qiao Qiao, don’t you dare go back on your word. I want one with plum blossoms and one with a rabbit.”

I rested my head in Gu Xing’s arms. His voice gradually faded away.

I dreamed of that winter.

Snow covered the mountain behind the General’s residence.

I dragged Gu Xing up the mountain to catch rabbits.

Every time I missed, I turned around to look at him.

The little young master, fair and lovely, stood beneath a plum tree. His sparkling eyes looked as if they were full of stars.

I sat down in the snow, discouraged.

“Brother Xing, if you don’t help catch them, all the rabbits will get away.”

He smiled until his eyes curved.

“You scared them all away, Qiao Qiao.”

Gu Xing brushed the snow off my clothes.

Before long, he caught one.

Afraid of frightening it, I gently stroked its soft fur with my little hand.

“Does Qiao Qiao like little rabbits?”

“I do.”

“Then can Qiao Qiao like Brother Xing as much as she likes the rabbit?”

“But Brother Xing isn’t a rabbit.”

“Then what is Brother Xing?”

“A fox. Father says Brother Xing is a fox who eats rabbits.”

Gu Xing gently tapped the nose of the sleeping Lin Qiao.

He couldn’t help laughing.

“You little heartless thing.”

The End