Chapter 3

The next morning, Zhou Yanzhi said he wanted to take me out to lift my spirits.

I wasn’t in the mood and refused him directly.

He didn’t press the issue, but at noon, he sent someone with my favorite flower lantern. This was an unspoken agreement between us; whenever I was feeling down, he would gift me a lantern as an invitation for a boat ride on the lake.

Looking at the lantern, I eventually decided to go.

Halfway there, however, I overheard passing eunuchs and palace maids whispering.

“Did you hear? The Seventh Princess just stumbled a little, and Lord Apparent Zhou acted like he was going to lose his mind!”

“I know, right? They look like they’re about to be wed. See, they’ve gone for a boat ride on the lake together…”

Their gossip left me in a daze.

During the most difficult days after my mother’s passing, it was Zhou Yanzhi who stayed by my side. I knew then that my mother had withered away from grief after losing my father’s favor, so I stubbornly demanded that Zhou Yanzhi prove I was his “one and only.”

He once solemnly promised that he would only ever take me for a boat ride on the lake.

But when I arrived at the shore, the sight before me was a dagger to the heart.

Jiang Lingyi was sitting right next to Zhou Yanzhi, her posture intimate.

When Zhou Yanzhi looked up and saw me, a flicker of panic crossed his face.

Jiang Lingyi, however, smiled sweetly. “Sister, you’re here? Father Emperor told me to prepare for my wedding, so it seems I’ll be the one going for the political marriage after all. Sister, did you get your wish?”

Zhou Yanzhi’s gaze turned cold as it landed on me. He questioned me harshly, “You clearly promised you wouldn’t make things difficult for Lingyi!”

“I told you I would marry you! What more do you want?!”

Jiang Lingyi’s eyes reddened, and she stepped forward. “Sister, I am willing to bear the responsibility of this marriage. It’s just… I truly can’t bear to part with the Lord Apparent, so I came to say goodbye. Please don’t be angry, sister. Please, just give me a little time to compose myself, alright?”

As she spoke, tears streamed down her face.

Zhou Yanzhi’s voice was full of disappointment. “Jiang Huiyin! Must you push Lingyi to her death to be satisfied? When did you become so cold-hearted?”

I looked at him, and he seemed like a stranger. “And what about you? Are you still the same Zhou Yanzhi I once knew?”

He scoffed, his exhaustion evident. “Enough! You always have your reasons. Since you refuse to help Lingyi, I will! I will stop her marriage, no matter what!”

Hearing this, Jiang Lingyi’s face went deathly pale, and her tears flowed like a river. “You can’t! That would be defying an imperial edict!”

She then fainted dramatically into Zhou Yanzhi’s arms. A cold, mocking glint flashed in my eyes.

Seeing my lack of reaction, Zhou Yanzhi seized my wrist. “Your sister fainted from fear, and you still have the mind for a boat ride?”

“If anything happens to her, I see no reason for our engagement to continue!”

I closed my eyes.

When I opened them again, they were as cold as ice.

“Let go,” I said, my voice calm and flat.

A vein throbbed on his forehead. “Jiang Huiyin! Do you just want to watch her die?”

“I promised your mother I would protect you, but that does not mean I can tolerate you hurting Lingyi time and time again!”

He grew more agitated, as if we were back in our previous life, trapped in one of our countless, bitter arguments.

My tone remained placid. “I’m grown now. I don’t need your protection anymore. Go protect her.”

As if remembering something, Zhou Yanzhi lowered his head and said in a deep voice, “I’m sorry.”

“His Majesty considers your every need, but the Seventh Princess… she has no one else in this world to rely on but me…”

I fought to calm myself and turned to return to the palace. Just then, a slowly reviving Jiang Lingyi followed me into my carriage.

The carriage had barely started moving when chaos erupted. Several arrows sliced through the air!

My heart sank. This is bad! Someone wants to sabotage the political alliance by assassinating the princess!

My guards drew their swords to fight, but they were cut down by the assassins one by one. Jiang Lingyi was petrified with fear.

Zhou Yanzhi reacted in a flash, leaping onto the carriage. Seeing him, Jiang Lingyi threw herself into his arms, clinging to him for dear life.

He instinctively shielded her in his embrace, then yelled urgently to me, “Your personal guards are highly skilled! I’ll get the Seventh Princess to safety first and be right back for you!”

Before his words had faded, he had already jumped from the carriage with Jiang Lingyi in his arms.

In that single instant, a cold arrow, whistling through the wind, pierced through my chest.

An explosion of pain consumed me, so intense that tears streamed uncontrollably from my eyes.

In the last moment before my vision went black, I saw Zhou Yanzhi carrying Jiang Lingyi, disappearing into the chaos and dust without a backward glance.