Her Moon, My Mountain - Chapter 3

The room held a cool bamboo mat and water-plants. Its temperature was extremely pleasant.

My master and I sat facing each other. The atmosphere was extremely unpleasant.

Her fingertip rested at the corner of my eyebrow.

At first glance, the gesture looked tender and intimate. Consider it more carefully, and every hair on your body stood on end.

If I did not stop quibbling—no, explaining—she might drive that finger straight into my eye and turn a woman who loved talking blind nonsense into someone who talked nonsense while truly blind.

I threw my arms around her thigh.

Shaking my head wildly, I cried, “No, no! Your Highness! This servant truly cannot see. It is only… only…”

She lowered her eyes toward me. There was even a trace of a smile on her lips when she drawled, “Go on.”

“…” I swallowed. Cold sweat streamed down my back.

The only reason I had survived her test back then was that I truly had been blind.

But now…

Perhaps I could remain blind a little longer.

With complete sincerity and painstaking detail, I told Su Ji, “Your Highness, surely you know that when one of the five senses is lost, the others compensate. A blind person often has sharper hearing, a keener nose, and a more sensitive palate.”

“Mm.” The end of the sound rose, exquisitely pleasing to the ear. “And?”

Also exquisitely dangerous.

I gave a guilty cough. “Therefore, from the end of each month into the beginning of the next, this servant can smell a faint… scent of blood on Your Highness.”

Su Ji went still.

I coughed again. “During those days, you seldom leave the estate. When you do change into court dress, your gait differs from usual. This servant guessed that perhaps your bound chest was swollen and painful…”

Su Ji did not move.

I dared not look up. I coughed once more. “Concerned for Your Highness’s health, this servant boldly adjusted your evening soups. Sure enough, you always chose the brown-sugar broth with ginger and red dates…”

Su Ji seemed to turn to stone.

Silence.

More silence.

A long, long silence.

Tonight, silence was the Prince of Lin.

“Your Highness? Your Highness?” I called twice with heartfelt concern. “Would you like this servant to change your menstrual cloth? I know that Your Highness suffers many inconveniences, but that item should still be changed fre—”

“Shut up!” Su Ji snapped.

Every trial was difficult. Every trial could be passed.

This young lady was a born genius at undercover work.

To finish the performance properly, I was applying medicine to Su Ji when the emperor arrived.

She sat at the bedside with half her robe undone and one fragrant shoulder exposed. Her thick lashes drooped, hiding the cold light in her eyes. Slender and delicate, she appeared harmless to man and beast alike.

Looking at her now, who could imagine that she had killed one man every ten paces tonight without blinking?

She was no gentler with herself.

The wound, though no longer bleeding, cut so deep that bone showed.

The candle flame swayed. When noise came from the outer room, I had not yet understood what was happening before her grip abruptly tightened.

She dragged me into her arms.

I crashed into her chest without warning.

That smooth skin, those twin mounds of snowy jade… this time everything was perfectly clear and unforgettable.

The woman before me stiffened from head to toe.

There was no possible way she felt shy. The only explanation was that she had already been swollen and sore, and now wanted nothing more than to pinch me to death.

I nearly drowned in a sea of dark fragrance and dared not twitch.

She reacted instantly. One hand locked around the back of my head while the other dragged a thin quilt over us—

Seen from outside, the scene could only be a passionate encounter interrupted at its height.

The chamberlain’s announcement arrived belatedly.

His Majesty had arrived.

“Cishan, you gave everyone a terrible fright this time, yet you still have the heart to indulge in romance!”

The emperor was in his thirties, already running slightly to fat, and wore such a genial smile that he looked wonderfully good-tempered.

Su Ji and I both knew better. He had arrived with astonishing speed, but how much of that haste came from concern for his brother, how much from testing the truth, and how much from delivering a warning, no one could say.

“Forgive me, Imperial Brother. This younger brother fears pain. Without a beauty for company, the suffering is simply unbearable.”

Holding me in her arms, Su Ji gave an ambiguous laugh and played the dissolute libertine.

The emperor naturally had no taste for peering into another man’s bedroom.

He offered a perfunctory word of advice and exchanged a few affectionate remarks. Elder brother was loving, younger brother respectful; all was harmony. Then His Majesty departed.

Thus, by one narrow turn after another, we fooled him.

Only my reputation suffered.

Su Ji treated me with unusual favor. People in the estate had long whispered that I had climbed into her bed, but they lacked evidence.

After tonight, even jumping into the Yellow River could not wash me clean.

The emperor himself had witnessed it. My disgrace now bore official approval and an imperial seal.