Chapter 16

“Third Prince!”

The guard outside shoved the door open carelessly, and in an instant startled awake the two, who had both been somewhat lost in a daze of tangled emotions.

Su Jiao hurriedly reached out to push him away in a panic. Her burning fingertips pressed against his, and her body trembled again, her face flushing a deep red.

Xie Yan, quick-eyed and swift-handed, pulled her back into his arms, narrowly preventing the people outside the door from catching sight of the scene.

“Stop.”

The low voice carried a few traces of hoarseness. Su Jiao heard him exhale a soft breath, and the beating in her chest grew faster and faster.

“Third Prince! This servant has been ordered to deliver medicine.”

“Leave it outside the door.”

Xie Yan closed his eyes and did not look at Su Jiao again. The grip he held around her wrist grew ever tighter, and a thin bead of sweat dripped down from his brow.

The guard obeyed and left. The disordered sound of footsteps outside the door gradually receded into the distance, and the two people inside the room remained pressed tightly together in the same position as before.

The body she had just dried now seemed to be faintly dampened by a thin layer of sweat again. The lingering warmth from the bath caused the temperature inside the room to climb, and her face was flushed a deep red from the heat. She couldn’t help but let out a soft, faint breath.

“Xie Yan.”

She lifted her head, and those dewy eyes looked up at him.

Their breaths mingled. Xie Yan gazed fixedly at those eyes.

In the first year of Zhaoning, when the Emperor and Empress made their southern tour down to Jiangnan, he and Su Jiao had passed by a certain schoolhouse. She had treated a female teacher whose eyes had been injured and, upon learning that her family forbade her from teaching any further because she was a woman and were forcing her to marry so that her dowry money could fund her younger brother’s wedding — Su Jiao had personally given her a sum of gold and silver to heal the eyes her parents had beaten to near-blindness, and had ordered the prefect to build a new schoolhouse so that the woman could go on teaching there in peace.

At the moment of parting, the female teacher had expressed her gratitude a thousand times over, and cited a verse of poetry in praise of her —

“Her beautiful eyes glance and flow in a moment of grace; a smile and words contained, never fully given away.”

It was strange — he had never once noticed before that she had such beautiful eyes.

The pad of his finger traced along the corner of her eye. The red mole at the corner of Su Jiao’s eye grew all the more vivid under the motion of his caress, and he let out a sudden breath, bending down and lowering his head once more.

“Mm…”

His warm lips lingered from the corner of her eye down toward the edge of her lips, and in the moment they were about to press deeper, Su Jiao, in her flustered panic, parted her teeth and bit down.

Their lips and teeth collided. The corner of her mouth was nicked and drew a little blood. The faint sting of pain startled Xie Yan, and with a shove of her hand, she gathered her robes and fled outside.

He was left standing alone in his place — the hem of his robe soaked with water and spread with large dark blotches, his hair crown askew, the corner of his mouth bearing a smear of blood from where she had bitten him. Quite the sorry figure.

Xie Yan raised a hand and wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth. He lowered his head, and there, beneath the dark fabric of his robe — a large, conspicuous swelling.

……

Even sorrier.

By the time he had composed himself and walked out, Su Jiao had already changed her clothes and was sitting in place, her eyes darting about as she stared at the vial of medicine, her cheeks flushed pink — lost in who knew what thoughts.

His movement startled her out of it. The moment Su Jiao caught sight of him, she instinctively rose to flee — and then caught herself halfway through the motion, and sat back down with an embarrassed smile under his expressionless gaze.

The husband and wife looked at each other. There were no words. Xie Yan walked over, picked up the vial of medicine.

“Sit properly.”

Su Jiao instinctively straightened her back. The next instant, slightly cool fingertips pressed against the wound, carrying with them that faint, clean fragrance that drifted to her nostrils.

They were so close. Even with something as mundane as this — the act of applying medicine — Su Jiao felt uneasy. Her eyes drifted left and right, only to be drawn toward the excessively red corner of Xie Yan’s lips.

“You bit down so hard — anyone who didn’t know better would think you were born in the year of the dog.”

The light scoff carried a faint laugh. Su Jiao opened her mouth to retort before her face had even caught up, and it turned red first.

“That’s your own fault.”

Acting as though he’d never been this close to a woman in half his life.

Xie Yan was not the least bit ashamed.

“My fault for what?”

He raised his hand and tilted Su Jiao’s chin upward.

“I was holding my own Prince’s Consort in my arms. If I had no such reaction — or had such a reaction toward someone else — then you would have cause to weep.”

The implication within the words was unmistakably clear. Yongning Hall had never housed any concubines or attendants. Su Jiao recalled that in her past life, he had also been a man of clean and self-disciplined habits — not a single consort across the three palaces and six courts…

Oh. Except for the four-year-old son he had brought back in the third year of their marriage.

Wait — four years old?

Su Jiao’s eyes narrowed at once, and a suspicious gaze fell on him.

“What do you mean by that?”

Seeing her suspicion, Xie Yan’s hand pressed down a fraction harder in that instant, and he looked at her with cool, detached eyes.

“Nothing. I was looking at Your Highness and found the view rather pleasing — got a little carried away.”

Su Jiao said offhandedly.

Never mind. What business is it of hers what went on between him and Yun Miao? She was going to leave soon anyway.

With that thought, the restless heat that had just begun to stir in her chest settled at once and grew still.

Looking at Xie Yan applying medicine to her wound now, there was no longer the faintest trace of the tender warmth from before.

Knowing she hadn’t spoken truthfully, Xie Yan said nothing, silently finished applying the medicine, and the two had no further words.

For the remainder of that half-day, Xie Yan stayed in the room, while it was actually Su Jiao who went out once.

Su Wei, having finished with the matters up front, had someone call her over.

“Brother.”

She walked into the room and had barely gotten that one word out before Su Wei pulled her over to him.

“Jiao Jiao, how is the wound on your face?”

His cool, clear gaze was laced with urgency, and the moment it fell on her injury, it melted entirely into heartache.

“How did it get this severe?”

The hands gripping her shoulders tightened in an instant, and a flash of cold fury crossed his eyes. Su Jiao, caught off guard by the pain, couldn’t help but cry out.

“Brother!”

Su Wei eased his grip and looked her over from head to toe.

“Forgive me — your brother was too worried. Does it hurt badly? Of all places, why did it have to be somewhere as important as your face.”

Su Jiao set aside her suspicions about the First Prince and told him what had happened that day.

When he heard that the arrow had grazed past her face and nearly taken her life, Su Wei was clearly on the verge of losing his composure again.

“Jiao Jiao, you’ve suffered.

Leave it to your brother. Don’t worry — your brother will find… will find out who is behind this and avenge you.”

His bloodshot eyes were fixed on her, his gaze tender with grief. His large hand gently traced over the wound on her face, and the violence inside him reached its peak in that moment.

How dare he…

His gaze drifted downward. He was just about to have someone bring some medicine when his eyes came to a sudden stop at the corner of her lips.

Her lips had always been very pale in color, and she rarely applied rouge to them. Today, with her complexion wan and clearly without makeup, yet her lips were an alarming shade of red.

And what was more… there were faint teeth marks on them.

The expression in his eyes shifted again and again, as though he had suddenly realized something. Su Wei’s throat moved with great difficulty as he swallowed.

“Jiao Jiao, you…”

“What is it?”

Su Jiao looked up. Su Wei met those clear, unguarded eyes, full of trust, and closed his own for a moment, forcing down the rest of the sentence with great restraint.

He couldn’t…

“Do you still remember what your brother said to you before?”

“Of course I do.”

On the day she had returned home after the wedding, she and Su Wei had discussed everything in private. He had asked her whether she wished to leave the palace, and she had simply nodded and said yes. And so Su Wei had told her:

“Leave everything to your brother. No matter the cost, I will bring you out.”

“The time is almost here…”

He stroked her hair, his gaze lingering with an indecipherable expression on her lips, remaining there for a long while.

Su Jiao felt a vague discomfort.

“Brother…”

“It’s nothing. Go back.”

Before she could push him away, Su Wei released her on his own. He watched her until she had left the courtyard, then suddenly pulled a knife from the edge of the table and went out the other way.

Half an hour later, he came out of a certain courtyard and returned to his own. His face was stained with blood, and his eyes were colder than when he had left. The servants followed behind him in trembling fear, recalling only that from that courtyard there had at first come the sound of voices, and then nothing but the sound of a dagger entering flesh, and a single cry.

The young master had not lost his temper like this in many years. He had always been exceedingly respectful toward that person — except for this time, where it concerned the young miss —

“You and I are not master and servant. If you insist on harming my sister again, it will be mutual destruction — and I will take your life.”

“How are the preparations coming along?”

Su Wei’s words broke through the servant’s thoughts. The servant hurriedly bowed.

“Everything is in order. The coffin has also been arranged.”

Su Wei was silent for a moment, his eyes resting on the large cloak at his side.

“Do you think what I am doing is right?”

The servant’s heart gave a sharp jolt.

“The young miss is not happy in the palace, so naturally the young master has done nothing wrong.”

“Yes… I only want Jiao Jiao to come out. I want her to… stay by my side forever. Even if for that…”

He did not continue.

“The medicine to be served to Madam…”

“That is also prepared. Once she drinks it, it will appear just like death from angina — no physician will detect anything amiss.”

Creak —

“Who’s there?”

The footsteps outside the door rushed away in panic. Su Wei shot a sudden, cold glance in that direction, cutting off the servant’s words, and gripping the dagger, he shouldered the door open and thrust it forward.

****

After the prayers at the temple, there were pressing affairs at court, and so Emperor Jia departed ahead with his ministers and the various princes.

Su Jiao and Xie Yan followed behind the imperial procession and returned to the palace together.

She brought with her the various bottles and vials that Su Wei had sent over later, sat in her room at Yongning Hall, and busied herself arranging them.

“This one is for reducing swelling, this one is for fading scars, and this one… Brother said it’s to keep the wound from becoming inflamed…”

“Noisy.”

Listening to her chatter on with “brother” this and “brother” that, Xie Yan abruptly turned the book in his hand face-down onto the table.

The cold words fell on her ears, and Su Jiao didn’t even look up.

His words were ignored entirely. Xie Yan narrowed his eyes at her, his expression somewhat displeased.

“Ordinary medicine is all it is — what’s so wonderful about it?”

“Good or not, it is still Brother’s thoughtfulness.”

Besides, everything Su Wei had ever put in front of her, from childhood to now, had been nothing but the finest.

Watching her treasure the bottles as though they were something remarkable, Xie Yan let out a quiet, scornful laugh.

“However fine it may be, can it compare to the Huishui Condensed Dew Pill?”

Clatter —

She dropped everything in her hands onto the table and in two or three quick strides, gathering her skirt, ran to stand before him, her eyes bright and sparkling as she looked at the porcelain vial he had apparently produced at some point.

“How could anything compare! Husband’s things are naturally the finest.”

Her tone turned suddenly soft and gentle, Su Jiao’s full attention now fixed entirely on him. The sharp lines of Xie Yan’s handsome face eased slightly.

His fingertips idly flicked at the porcelain vial.

“Is that so? I rather think it does not compare to Young Master Su’s — after all, that is entirely Young Master Su’s thoughtfulness.”

“Brother’s thoughtfulness is Brother’s. Husband’s thoughtfulness is Husband’s.”

Su Jiao smiled and spoke, her hand already reaching toward his palm.

“If Husband were to give this vial to me, then nothing could compare.”

This time, Xie Yan’s hand did not dodge as it had when she first tried to take it. He simply sat there quietly, letting her do as she pleased. Su Jiao leaned forward, and seeing that he did not move, felt a surge of delight in her heart.

Was he really going to give it to her?

If she had this medicine, Mother would have much better protection against angina.

Outwardly pleased, the words she spoke grew sweeter still.

“It’s just one vial of medicine. Since it was left behind by the late Empress, whether I hold onto it or Husband holds onto it makes no difference. I know it — Husband is the best, Husband is the best in all the world.”

Her palm closed around the porcelain vial. Su Jiao was just about to pull it out when suddenly an arm wrapped around her waist, and she, completely unprepared, tilted forward and was drawn into his arms.

A large shadow loomed before her. His handsome face inclined downward, looking at Su Jiao, his languid eyes carrying a glimmer of quiet laughter.

His fingertips traced lightly along the curve of her waist. Su Jiao’s legs went soft, and the struggle she had just begun dissolved entirely as she melted against him.

“Then tell me — what is good about me?”

He lowered his gaze, their breaths mingling together.

Su Jiao was just about to put together something flattering to say when a flurry of hasty, frantic footsteps came rushing from outside the door, which was suddenly flung open and shattered the warmth of the room entirely.

Xie Yan looked up, his gaze cool.

“You had better come up with something —”

“Your Highness, My Lady — something terrible has happened.”

Chang Lin was panting heavily, his voice urgent.

“Word has come from outside the palace. Madam Su fell from a cliff — she is dead.”