The Princess's Gambit - Chapter 3

They carried Xiaozhou’s body away. Soon she would be one more ordinary grave among the unclaimed dead outside the capital.

I took Pei Rong into my bedchamber. Seated on the couch, I leaned down and looked into his eyes.

“Why did you come to my residence, Young Master Pei?”

I played with a lock of his hair, drawing it across the fine curve of his lips. He was uncomfortable, but still would not answer.

I gripped his chin, forced him to meet my gaze, and dug my nails into the wound on his cheek. Beads of blood ran along my fingers and onto the back of my hand.

“I’ve never asked you: what sort of woman do you like?”

His eyes dimmed. After a moment, he said, “You might as well punish me directly, Princess.”

I raised an eyebrow, surprised.

“If I say I like a woman like you, you’ll call me a glib flatterer. If I describe anyone else, you’ll accuse me of divided loyalties.”

His voice was cool and clear as springwater, his face utterly solemn. Yet he had chosen his words with care.

Something was wrong. This was not the Pei Rong I knew. Poisoned and beaten, he was suddenly trying to please me. The realization drew a bitter twist from my mouth. It was absurd.

This time he did not look away. His bright eyes met mine directly. “You once said it was my duty to please you.”

“A lie.”

Suiyin had quietly investigated all sixteen men in my household. Some came for rank, some for wealth. Some had been sent by families with nowhere else to turn; others hoped to charm their way into a minor office. I gave them food and clothing, rewarded the ones who pleased me with harmless positions, and had them perform small tasks. We each got what we wanted. Fair enough.

Pei Rong alone was different. Suiyin had tested him. He wanted neither honors nor riches, nor a life surrounded by beauties. Since arriving, he had not known a single good day. Seeing how I treated him, the servants sneered at him, neglected him, and often tampered with his meals. He swallowed them without changing expression.

A man who endured what others could not must be after something others could never obtain. Pei Rong had hidden his purpose well.

I moved closer. His breath caught, and he turned his face aside. Blood stained his cheek like rouge. Another person might have softened. But I, Jiang Zhaoxue, had come too far to permit the slightest wrong step.

He held my hand, brows drawn, lashes trembling. “Pei Rong is human too. A beating hurts me. Humiliation shames me.”

I had given him the silver chain around his neck. Back then, I had told him to leave if he could not bear it. He had willingly put on the shackle himself.

“What is it you really want?”

“What if I want to live?”

He answered in complete earnest. There had been only one antidote to Chenjiang. Xiaozhou was dead, and I had not bestowed that remaining dose on him.

So that was it: he was pleading for his life. No wonder he had found some pretty words to say. Without his life, anything else he wanted would be meaningless.

Outside the lattice window, a pine branch fell. My expression changed sharply.

“Princess?” he asked with concern.

I pressed a finger to his lips to silence him. With nothing suitable close at hand, I tore down a bed curtain and used its silk ties to bind his hands behind his head.

I leaned in, pushed the last length of silk into his mouth, and lowered my voice. “Bite down. Don’t make a sound.”

He nodded. Something I had said had left the tips of his ears red.