Her Moon, My Mountain - Chapter 4

By the time we had seen off all the nobles who came to inquire after the prince’s injuries, half the night was gone.

The Prince of Lin’s Estate still blazed with lamps.

The assassins had struck during the evening banquet. They were not merely bold; they knew the estate extremely well.

There was a traitor among us.

Once her wound had been dressed, Su Ji wrapped herself in her crane-feather cloak and sat in the cool pavilion. She dismissed everyone who had no business remaining.

I waited beside her as she questioned one of the people responsible for tonight’s attack.

An old woman who had served here since the estate was first built.

She had always kept such a low profile that even I barely remembered her.

“This prince found someone to settle your mother comfortably. Your daughter was freed from bondage and married into a respectable household. The rewards you have received over the years would have kept you in comfort after leaving the estate…” Su Ji’s voice was mild. “I do not understand what reason you could still have to betray me.”

There was no accusation in her tone.

No genuine question, either.

She merely looked down at the old woman kneeling before her, as if she had expected this from the beginning—watching someone familiar become a stranger.

Nanny Fang stared, then smiled bitterly. “I thought the steward had been merciful. So all these years, it was Your Highness… My prince, the rumors are true. You see into the darkest secrets as though you were a demon. It frightens people.”

Upon learning of such enormous kindness, her first response was not gratitude but fear.

I had heard such words before.

When I first entered the estate, an old woman warned me never to entertain thoughts I should not have and never to deceive the prince.

They all said the Prince of Lin possessed sorcery.

That she could see the future.

…

Nonsense, I thought. I had given her so many surprises, and she had foreseen none of them.

There were clearly three people in the pavilion, yet for a time all creation seemed silent.

Su Ji abruptly lost interest.

She rose and walked away.

“You once served Great-Aunt. This prince will not make matters difficult for you. Collect your silver and leave on your own.”

The “Great-Aunt” she spoke of was Grand Consort Long, who had adopted her years ago.

Nanny Fang could never have imagined the prince would spare her.

She suddenly looked toward Su Ji’s retreating back as though seeing the small child who had once babbled at her side. Moonlight trembled in her clouded eyes and flashed like ripples on water.

“My prince, this old servant has wronged you.

“You must not place too much trust in those beside you.”

I suspected that last remark was aimed at me, and sweat once again poured down my back.

Su Ji did not turn around.

She had gone a considerable distance when a sudden splash came from the pond behind us.

“Your Highness!” Startled, I instinctively moved to save the woman.

“Zhenniang.” Su Ji turned partly toward me, her face without expression.

I stopped under her warning gaze. A chill spread through me.

She had expected Nanny Fang to take her own life.

The woman’s betrayal was already a fact.

Su Ji could not bring herself to kill her, but Nanny Fang knew too many secrets. If she left the estate alive, what followed could not be controlled.

In death, at least her family escaped punishment.

There was no mercy in an imperial house.

Su Ji had walked over white bones piled upon white bones to reach her present height.

The higher one stood, the colder the wind.

Her heart was cold as well.

On the way back, I trailed far behind her.

Her steady stride never faltered. Looking up at the moon, she murmured with faint self-mockery, “Even if I lived it all again, nothing could be changed.”

The wind made her voice seem unreal.

I hesitated. “Your Highness?”

She suddenly stopped and turned.

She watched me from a distance. Her feathered cloak streamed in the long wind beneath the stars, making her look like an immortal banished from heaven.

Backlit by the moon, her lips seemed to curve, but her eyes were dark and fathomless. “Zhenniang, do you also think this prince a demon?”

In three years of braving death at her side, I had witnessed her thunderous methods. I had also seen an awareness of disaster so sharp that it defied reason.

Again and again, she took precautions and evaded calamity before it arrived.

She protected not only those around her, but all the people under heaven.

Or, as some described it, she seemed able to see the future.

There was no shortage of factions that targeted her for this unnatural talent.

The three years I had served in the estate were the most hair-raising seven years of my five-year life.

I considered my answer carefully. “Your Highness is an auspicious blessing.”

…

Tsk. With a tongue this sweet, how could I fail to charm her senseless?

Su Ji: “…”