A Moonlit Encounter at the Jade Terrace - Chapter 3

In the end, the marriage fell through.

It had not even been arranged, yet the affair had nearly made enemies of the Jiang and Lu families—and dragged the Wang family into the quarrel besides.

The Crown Princess sent Liang Huai away with a furious scolding and bitterly regretted the whole matter. She gave Wang Yingrong and me lavish gifts, saying we had both been wronged. If either of us found a man we truly loved in the future, she promised to contribute a generous dowry.

After what happened, neither Wang Yingrong nor I wanted anything more to do with Liang Huai.

When we left the palace, she was still troubled, but she forced herself to thank me for sparing her further humiliation.

Once home, I shut myself in my courtyard and dismissed the servants.

Several brocade carp lived in my pond. They usually rested at the bottom in the cool water, rising only when they were fed or when I came to see them.

Bubbles began to break the surface. I set out a chair and sat down as the fish slowly swam up.

They blew bubbles and started talking over one another.

“Where is he? Has he come yet?”

“He’s already reached the capital!”

“The real and false Imperial Grandsons will meet very soon.”

Their voices were a jumble, one tumbling over the next. Before long, pain stabbed through my skull.

I desperately wanted to keep listening—to learn something that would lead me to the true Imperial Grandson—but I had no choice but to rise and retreat. I pressed a hand to my head and backed away until their voices vanished. Only then did the sharp pain slowly ease.

I tipped my face helplessly toward the sky.

It had always been like this. Although I could understand animals, I had no control over the ability. They had to come near me and choose to speak.

And if I learned too much about the future, headaches would begin. Sometimes I even fainted.

It seemed I would have to find the Imperial Grandson on my own.

News of the banquet spread quickly. Everyone knew that I had taken Liang Huai’s peach blossom and given it to Wang Yingrong, yet in the end neither of us had become his consort.

The capital buzzed with speculation. At least Liang Huai did not escape ridicule either.

All three of us were scolded.

I had no time to care.

On the practical side, I had just rejected Liang Huai, who was no gentleman. There was no telling whether he would retaliate.

On the personal side, the Crown Princess had looked after me since I was a child. For my maternal grandmother’s sake, she had always treated me with great affection.

She had lost her child and let an impostor take his place. It was a monstrous injustice.

I told no one what I had learned. Instead, I quietly ordered a trusted attendant to investigate unfamiliar faces newly arrived in the capital.

Unfortunately, the imperial examinations were approaching. Scholars from every province had come to stay, and there were far too many strangers to identify one man among them.

For several days, I found excuses to go out. I visited teahouses crowded with scholars and tried to see as many of them as possible.

But none of the animals that had warned me before made a sound.

The man I wanted was not among them.

I could not help feeling disappointed.

One evening, as I headed home, heavy rain began to fall over a capital that had been clear all day.

I had just stepped from a teahouse and opened my umbrella when my chest tightened.

A one-legged sparrow landed on my shoulder. It was filthy, apparently from some long journey, and its muddy claw smeared my clothes.

My guards started forward in alarm to drive it away.

“Don’t.”

I raised a hand to stop them and carefully lowered my eyes to the sparrow.

It looked up at me at the same moment. Somehow, in those tiny beadlike eyes, I saw an almost human intelligence.

The sparrow opened its beak.

“Nanhai Tower…”

I was listening with all my attention when the sensation of being watched crawled over my skin.

Something cold grazed my ear.

An arrow tore through the air, shot from the teahouse above. It passed my face on a blade of wind.

Blood spattered my cheek.

The arrow had pierced the sparrow. The light vanished from its eyes, and it tumbled from my shoulder to the ground.