Chapter 6

Catching a glimpse of Zhou Yanzhi’s approaching figure out of the corner of her eye, Jiang Lingyi smirked coldly and pulled me with her into the lake.

The shrieks of the maids on the shore were distorted and muffled by the water.

I couldn’t swim. Icy water flooded my nose and mouth, a feeling of suffocation closing around my throat like an iron clamp. I struggled desperately, but my limbs grew heavier and heavier.

Through the chaos, I saw Zhou Yanzhi.

He dove into the water, but he swam straight for Jiang Lingyi.

As I watched him shield her, pulling her slowly toward the shore, despair consumed me completely. My consciousness sank into an endless darkness…

After falling into the water, I developed a fever. Nightmares clung to me like shadows, dragging me back to my previous life again and again.

A piercing whistle tore through the sky!

In a flash, a powerful force yanked me into an embrace, shielding me heavily.

“Zhou Yanzhi!” I struggled to sit up, my mind reeling, but my hand pressed against something warm, sticky, and wet on his chest.

An arrow had pierced straight through him.

Blood stained my fingertips and colored my entire world red.

Seeing his face turn instantly pale, a colossal fear seized my heart, so painful I couldn’t breathe. My voice was shattered, filled with a pleading I had never shown before. “Zhou Yanzhi… don’t… please don’t die!”

The vision suddenly shattered, and I woke from the nightmare, my face cold and wet with tears. I curled into a ball, hugging the cold blankets tightly, my suppressed sobs echoing in the silent bedchamber.

Getting up, I dipped a brush in ink and wrote a letter to Zhou Yanzhi:

I fell in love with you in our youth, and it brought me boundless joy.

I still remember you once said you would become the mightiest general to protect me, the most honored princess. A young girl’s heart was entirely captivated by you.

You were the one who first caught my eye, but it was I who clung to you. The truth is, I knew long ago your heart belonged to Lingyi. I should have let go. I was just greedy for the little bit of warmth you once gave me, and I couldn’t bear to part with it.

But I never knew that little bit of warmth would ultimately cost me my life.

Reborn into this life, I am unwilling, and I do not dare, to love you again.

After writing the last word, I smiled, a sense of release washing over me.

I handed the letter to a trusted palace maid, instructing her to deliver it after I had left the palace.

“Your Highness… you…” the maid said, her eyes filled with worry as she looked at the tear tracks still visible on my face.

“It’s nothing.” I shook my head gently, my voice calm. “Go.”

She had just left when Jiang Lingyi arrived, accompanied by Zhou Yanzhi.

Jiang Lingyi hurried forward, feigning concern as she reached out to check my temperature. I instinctively leaned away, and she used the momentum to cry out and fall heavily to the floor.

“Lingyi!” Zhou Yanzhi rushed forward, anxiously helping her up, his face filled with unconcealed heartache. “Are you hurt?”

Jiang Lingyi nestled in his arms, her face tear-streaked as she looked up, her voice choked with emotion. “Sister… I know you don’t like me, but we are sisters by blood. I… I’m about to be married, and I just wanted to spend some time with you before I leave…”

Zhou Yanzhi gently stroked her back, comforting her in a soft voice.

Jiang Lingyi’s gaze fell on the hairpin in my hair, and her tone suddenly became sorrowful. “Sister… when I fell into the water, right before I lost consciousness… I thought I saw our mother’s spirit… It must have been Mother’s spirit who saved me!”

Tears streamed down her face as she pleaded, “Sister, I’m leaving soon… that hairpin Mother left you… please let me have it as a keepsake…”

Seeing her pitiful, tear-stained appearance, Zhou Yanzhi immediately took out a silk handkerchief and gently wiped her tears with infinite tenderness.

Then, he actually turned to me. “Your Highness…”

That was the only memento my mother had left me! And he was helping her take it from me?!

A tidal wave of grief and rage crashed over me. Shaking uncontrollably, I grabbed the nearest teacup and hurled it at him with all my might.

“Get out-!” A shrill scream tore through the hall. “Both of you, get out!”

The teacup struck him on the forehead with a sharp crack. Blood instantly welled up, trickling down from his brow in a startling stream.

He seemed seared by the hatred in my eyes and couldn’t even meet my gaze. He just lowered his head in disgrace, his voice strained. “Your Highness… rest well…”

I slowly closed my eyes, letting the boundless desolation swallow me whole.

In our last life, he took an arrow for me. In this one, he abandoned me to die twice.

Be it kindness or resentment, with this, we were even.

In two days, the envoys from the Southern Kingdom would arrive.

I calmly bid farewell to my old friends one by one, and distributed all the treasures in my storehouses to the palace staff who had served me so diligently over the years.

With that, there were no more attachments.

On the day of the wedding, I wore the magnificent, heavy gown and performed the final kowtow to my Father Emperor. Just as I stood and was about to step over the threshold of the great hall, a hand seized my wrist.

My father’s voice trembled as it never had before, like a string pulled taut to its breaking point. “Huiyin! Don’t go… I won’t let you go! I… I will risk this entire kingdom, risk my own life, to keep you safe!”

I squeezed his violently trembling hand, using all my strength to curve my lips into the brightest smile I could manage. “Father Emperor… I am a princess of the Jing Kingdom. The affairs of state must come first. How can I be… willful?”

“The auspicious hour has arrived-!” the chief eunuch’s shrill voice cut through the last thread of warmth.

The sedan chair’s curtain fell, hiding my father’s instantly aged face from view.

The towering city gates were in sight. The procession from the Southern Kingdom was already waiting in formation. The sky, clear just moments ago, was now filled with a fine, misty rain. The court officials followed behind, the atmosphere solemn and oppressive.

Zhou Yanzhi was among them, his gaze involuntarily glued to the glaringly red wedding sedan. An inexplicable anxiety gripped his heart, his palms already raw from where his nails dug into them. He was drowning in self-blame for failing to stop the “Seventh Princess’s” marriage, but the ominous feeling in his heart grew like a wild vine, threatening to consume him.

He looked around frantically, as if searching for an answer to his unease, but his eyes found no focus.

Suddenly!

His gaze locked onto a figure in the shadows of a side tower on the city wall-Jiang Lingyi!

She was standing right there, and she even waved at him!

“Lingyi?!” The blood in Zhou Yanzhi’s veins seemed to freeze solid, his pupils contracting violently.

She’s here?! Then who… who is in the wedding sedan?!

An icy chill shot up from the soles of his feet to the crown of his head.

Just then, a fierce gust of wind, heavy with rain, swept through.

The red bridal veil was violently flipped up for a single moment-

Through the misty rain, Zhou Yanzhi finally saw the impossibly familiar face inside the sedan.

Beneath the phoenix crown and splendid robes, the one about to be married off to the Southern Kingdom was not Jiang Lingyi!

It was… the Fifth Princess, Jiang Huiyin!

“HUIYIN-!!!”