Sharing One Life with My Nemesis - Chapter 18

Chapter 18

It rained the night we entered the Eastern Palace.

Princess Ningjia brought two squads of personal guards and waited outside the palace walls to meet us.

When she saw Xie Huaiyan draped in a Black Cloak, his face so pale he barely looked alive, she couldn’t help frowning.

“Can he even climb over the wall like this?”

I said, “He can.”

Xie Huaiyan glanced at me.

I added, “And if he can’t, he’ll have to.”

Princess Ningjia laughed.

“Miss Jiang, I think I’m starting to understand why he wouldn’t marry me.”

Xie Huaiyan said quietly, “Princess, mind your words.”

Princess Ningjia rolled her eyes.

“Stay alive long enough to come back out, then you can worry about what I say.”

The Eastern Palace had been sealed for days, and water had pooled deep beneath the corridors.

Following the directions Lu Xingzhou had given us, we felt our way to the Crown Prince’s old study.

The study was empty.

Xie Huaiyan lit a fire striker. In the glow, a Northern Border Map hanging on the wall came into view.

He suddenly stopped.

I asked, “What is it?”

“I’ve seen this map before.”

“Where?”

“In Lord Jiang’s study.”

My heart tightened.

There had indeed been a similar map of the Northern Frontier in my father’s study.

When the Jiang Family was raided and seized, that map had been treated as one piece of evidence of treason.

Xie Huaiyan pressed his hand against the edge of the map and gave it a gentle push.

A hidden compartment opened behind the wall.

There was no Mother Gu inside.

Only a wooden box.

Carved on the box was the Jiang Family’s Old Crest.

My fingertips went cold.

Xie Huaiyan said under his breath, “Don’t touch it.”

But I had already opened it.

Inside the box lay a letter.

It was in my mother’s handwriting.

Tingyun, if you are reading this letter, it means someone of the Jiang Family still lives.

My breath caught.

The letter said that sixteen years ago, the Crown Prince’s birth mother had used the Northern Frontier’s military grain as leverage to force the Jiang Family to submit. After my father refused, my mother secretly kept a copy of the Crown Prince’s Mansion Correspondence Register and hid it in the lining of two Northern Frontier maps.

The one at Jiang Mansion contained half the register.

This one in the Eastern Palace contained the other half.

In that instant, I understood why the Crown Prince had been so determined to wipe out the Jiang Family.

He had not feared that my father was colluding with the enemy.

He had feared that my father refused to sink into the same mire as him.

Xie Huaiyan suddenly clutched his chest and dropped to one knee.

I caught him at once.

“Is the Remnant Gu acting up?”

Cold sweat rolled down his forehead.

“The Mother Gu is nearby.”

Footsteps sounded outside the study.

Someone pushed the door open and came in.

It was not the imperial guards.

It was the Deposed Crown Prince.

He wore prison clothes and held a golden box in his hands, a sickly smile on his face.

“Xie Huaiyan, I have been waiting for you for a very long time.”

I stepped in front of Xie Huaiyan.

When the Crown Prince saw me, he gave a soft sigh.

“The daughters of the Jiang Family are all so bold.”

I asked, “How did you get out?”

“Too many people want to kill me, and quite a few want to silence me.”

He opened the golden box.

Inside, a tiny crimson insect lay curled on a piece of blood jade.

Xie Huaiyan gave a muffled groan, and blood spilled from the corner of his mouth.

The Crown Prince smiled. “The Mother Gu is here. If you want it, trade me the Jiang Family Register.”

I tightened my grip on my dagger.

Xie Huaiyan grabbed my sleeve.

“Don’t give it to him.”

The Crown Prince looked at me.

“Jiang Tingyun, your mother left that register behind to clear the Jiang Family’s name. But if Xie Huaiyan dies here, do you think you won’t regret it?”

Rain struck the window like countless fine needles.

I lowered my head and looked at Xie Huaiyan.

He was in so much pain he could barely speak, yet he still shook his head at me.

Again.

Again, they wanted me to choose justice, evidence, the greater good of the realm.

All at once, I laughed.

The Crown Prince frowned.

“What are you laughing at?”

I took the register from my sleeve.

Xie Huaiyan’s expression changed.

“Jiang Tingyun!”

I pressed the register to the fire striker.

The corner of the paper caught immediately.

The Crown Prince snapped, “Are you insane?”

“Didn’t you want the register?”

I looked at him.

“Come and take it.”

The instant the Crown Prince lunged forward, an arrow tore through the air from outside the window and struck him squarely in the wrist.

The golden box slipped from his hand.

Princess Ningjia vaulted in through the window and cursed.

“You were all talking reason for so long, I almost thought you were dead.”

I caught the golden box and snapped it shut with a twist of my hand.

Xie Huaiyan forced himself to his feet, drew his sword, and set the blade against the Crown Prince’s throat.

The Crown Prince stared at the ashes in my hand, his eyes nearly splitting with rage.

“The register!”

I blew the ash from my fingertips.

“It was fake.”

Before I entered the palace, I had already handed the real half-volume to my father.

My mother had taught me that the more important something was, the less you could afford to keep it in your own hands.