So—which Yin was it in Yu Ling Yin? What had Yu Lingxin been thinking when he gave her that name? Wasn’t he supposed to hate that child? Then why had he personally named her?
Jiang Nong looked up and saw Yu Lingxin had already tied his ribbon into a knot and hung it on the tree.
The ribbon fluttered in the wind, tossed high into the air.
Judging by her own experience, Jiang Nong guessed that perhaps blood ties were a mysterious thing. Xiaoman was his first child—a pitiful child who had lost her mother—so he felt a tiny shred of affection for her.
She had grown up in the harem. She knew that a little bit of a father’s affection meant a child wouldn’t have too hard a life.
Jiang Nong felt a sudden lightness in her heart.
They strolled by the river, where palace maids and eunuchs were everywhere hanging blessing ribbons. A few of Yu Lingxin’s unmarried sisters were also there, chattering and writing in a flurry—but the moment they spotted the emperor and empress, they fell silent like startled rabbits.
Finding it dull and feeling sleepy, they circled around once and went back to wash up and sleep.
Jiang Nong lay in bed, her body exhausted but her mind still buzzing. When Yu Lingxin buried his head in her arms, she didn’t push him away.
Yu Lingxin wasn’t asleep either. He could feel Jiang Nong softening—perhaps she was letting go of hatred and choosing to accept him. Let it be, let it be. His cool kiss landed on her forehead. Jiang Nong shivered at the cold—and found a key pressed into her hand.
“What’s this?”
“New Year’s money.”
Technically, since he was younger, she should have been the one giving Yu Lingxin New Year’s money—but she hadn’t prepared a single coin. Jiang Nong felt awkward and pretended not to know.
She held the key up to look at it and realized it was to his private storehouse. Why would he give her something so valuable?
Hadn’t he been upset just this afternoon? Who had made him happy again?
Jiang Nong thought back carefully and realized the shift had started when she was feeding him fruit.
Just a bit of peeled fruit—was that all it took to smooth his fur?
Was it simply that he’d wanted so long for what he couldn’t have that even a little kindness made him happy?
“Then… Happy New Year?” Jiang Nong said.
Yu Lingxin pressed his forehead against her chest in acknowledgment.
After a long while, Jiang Nong sensed he probably wasn’t asleep either, so she took advantage of his good mood to ask: “Will you tell me about Xiaoman?”
Yu Lingxin wasn’t as hateful toward Xiaoman as she had imagined. Last time he’d brushed it off with jokes—now Jiang Nong wanted to hear.
Yu Lingxin couldn’t remember. He didn’t like Yu Ling Yin that much. If he didn’t deliberately search his memory, he couldn’t think of anything to tell Jiang Nong.
“What do you want to hear?” Since Jiang Nong wouldn’t know either way, he could just make something up.
Jiang Nong thought he had too many things to tell and didn’t know where to start.
She thought for a moment, then asked: “Did she have any good friends? Or close siblings—did they study together and share snacks?”
Based on her own experience, if there were close sisters or brothers in the palace, life wouldn’t be too hard. They could study together, eat together, fly kites together.
“Siblings?” Yu Lingxin’s voice turned cold.
Jiang Nong realized her mistake—after all, Xiaoman had no older brothers or sisters: “Younger siblings, then? Did she have any close younger siblings?”
Though the age gap would be considerable, she’d have to look after them.
Yu Lingxin suddenly pulled his head away from her and turned over to sleep. Jiang Nong heard him say, dripping with cold hatred: “I hate you.”
Hates her again?
Where did she speak wrong now?
Why is he always angry?
Weren’t they fine just a moment ago?
Oh my god!
Jiang Nong pointed at herself in confusion: “You haven’t told me yet—why won’t you talk to me now?”
“Do you really want to hear it? Fine—yes, I hate you, so I could never love her either. She will live a life of loneliness, never knowing happiness or love. The only one who can accompany her, the only one she can trust, will always be herself. Are you satisfied now?”
To Jiang Nong, this was no less than the cruelest curse. But Yu Lingxin’s words were only ever half trustworthy—sometimes the process was right but the outcome wrong, sometimes the outcome right but the process wrong. The truth always came out twisted.
Still, Jiang Nong slapped him anyway, trembling with rage. She threw the key back at him: “Get out!”
Yu Lingxin’s eyes were bloodshot, his Adam’s apple bobbed, veins bulged on his neck—he looked equally agitated: “What am I to you, really?” Jiang Nong, you always go back and forth like this—a sweet date, then a slap. I know your kindness is just because you’re a good person, not because you actually care about me. Disgust for me has always been the foundation.
If it were someone else, you’d treat them better.
“Why do you get to treat me however you want?”
“How have I treated you? Have I been bad to you? I even peeled fruit for you tonight! Can’t you have a little conscience? If you’re unhappy, just say it! I’m left guessing every single day—I’m not a worm in your belly, how am I supposed to figure it out?”
“I will always hate you. You’d better keep hating me too.” Yu Lingxin left her with that cold statement.
Unreasonable! Absolutely unreasonable!
Yu Lingxin and Jiang Nong had fought again.
But this time it was different. Usually, their arguments went back and forth, and before long they could sit down and eat together again. This time, they wouldn’t even speak. Whenever they were in the same room, the atmosphere turned so cold it was unbearable—and the attendants caught in the middle suffered the most, forced to watch every word and action.
When attendants made mistakes, Yu Lingxin ordered them dragged away. Xunliang, shrewd as he was, would send them directly to the Punishment House to await sentencing. Then Rong Mian would arrive with Jiang Nong’s decree, release them, and assign a different punishment instead.
Yu Lingxin knew. He said nothing, pretending not to notice. The two of them waged this silent war against each other.
They hadn’t gotten around to dealing with Xin Hui yet, but then Princess Pingning went to offer incense outside the city and whipped several commoners who failed to get out of her way fast enough. The Censorate reported it to the palace. Yu Lingxin, already in a foul mood, suddenly remembered Xin Hui and decided to strike early.
Princess Pingning was roused from sleep in the middle of the night to hear that her son had been thrown into the inner prison. She didn’t sleep a wink. At the crack of dawn, she had her carriage hitched and rushed to the palace, waiting a long while before she could see Jiang Nong.
The weather was bitter cold. In her anxiety, she had fallen ill overnight—burning with fever. Covering her mouth, she coughed repeatedly before kneeling before Jiang Nong.
“Your Highness, please save Hui’er! He’s a good child—someone must have led him astray.”
Jiang Nong and Yu Lingxin had deliberately indulged him. Xin Hui had attracted many sycophants in the Langzhong Guard, and people would invite him for drinks every day. At first, he’d just get drunk and babble nonsense about the late emperor. Then, still hungover, his superior told him to “bring someone to the palace.” He misheard it as “arrest someone,” so he gathered his men and seized the Left Assistant of the Capital Magistrate’s office.
When the Left Assistant raised a mild objection on the way, Xin Hui beat him half to death—his colleagues couldn’t stop him. He even bragged: “Even the Emperor and Empress can’t control me—who do you think you are to lecture me? Let me tell you, once you enter the palace, you won’t make it out alive. Why else do you think His Majesty would summon you? Even if I beat you to death right now, nothing would happen to me.”
When the Left Assistant was brought before Yu Lingxin, he was weeping uncontrollably, begging His Majesty for justice.
There were many witnesses. The incident was severe in its impact and spread quickly. That very day, the Censor-in-Chief entered the palace and, according to Tan Kingdom’s laws, listed Xin Hui’s crimes one by one.
Merely speaking frivolously about the late emperor was punishable by execution of three generations of his clan—not to mention assaulting a superior, drunken dereliction of duty, and tarnishing His Majesty’s reputation. There was ample legal basis to chop him into minced meat.
Out of consideration for Princess Pingning, he was only transferred to the criminal prison to await execution on a designated date.
Xin Hui finally knew fear. Weeping, he insisted he had indeed heard “arrest that person and bring them to the palace, regardless of life or death.”
As for the comments about the late emperor, those too had been led by someone else—he had merely followed along.
After seeing her son, Princess Pingning’s heart sank. All she could do was beg for mercy: “Your Highness, if you can spare Hui’er’s life, I’ll do anything—even die in his place.”
“The one who committed the crime is him, not you. I would like to spare him, but the offense this time is so great that if we don’t make an example of him, everyone will think they can get away with anything.”
Princess Pingning collapsed to the ground and was helped out of the palace, stumbling. Before leaving, she didn’t forget to press silver into Tongye’s hand: “Eunuch Tongye, please put in a good word for me with Her Highness. If she speaks to His Majesty about it—since the Emperor and Empress are so close—he will surely agree.”
Tongye weighed the gold in his hand, playing the part of a crafty eunuch perfectly. With a mysterious smile, he said to Princess Pingning: “In my humble opinion, this matter is not without hope. You know how the late emperor was quite extravagant in his ways, while His Majesty and Her Highness are frugal—every grain and every coin goes to the people. Surely…”
He trailed off deliberately. Princess Pingning understood and nodded repeatedly: “Yes, yes, yes—I’ll go, I’ll go right away.”
As long as there was a way to save Xin Hui, she would do anything. She didn’t think too much about it, nor did she question whether this entire affair had been orchestrated from the start.
After Princess Pingning left, Jiang Nong felt a dryness and pain in her throat. She drank a lot of water—probably catching the illness that had been brought in. Rong Mian asked if they should fumigate with mugwort leaves, but Jiang Nong declined. She wasn’t that delicate.
She was in good health—her sore throat was gone within a day. But Yu Lingxin started drinking water constantly instead.
They were still in their cold war. Jiang Nong paid him no mind.
Three days later, Xin Hui was released from prison. His title was stripped, and he was reduced to a commoner. Princess Pingning had surrendered all her family’s wealth to buy his freedom, and she took him to live in their fief, forbidden to return to Fengye without grave cause.
After the New Year, Yu Lingxin had grown much thinner. His gaunt face looked even more sinister, dark circles under his eyes, his complexion sallow. Before Chao Ning left, he was so alarmed that he repeatedly urged Jiang Nong: “You two must take care of yourselves. I’ll send you some tonics when I get back—especially for Yu Lingxin. Make sure he eats more.”
Jiang Nong nodded perfunctorily. Yu Lingxin was a grown man—didn’t he know his own body? Did he really need her to look after him?
Who knew that Chao Ning’s words would prove prophetic? After three days of drinking water nonstop, Yu Lingxin came down with a fever on the fourth day—suspected to be retaliation left behind by Princess Pingning before her departure.
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