The Soulkeeper's Pavilion: Where the Phoenix Roosts - Chapter 4

After the engagement ended, Mother sent me to stay at our country residence for a while, away from the gossip.

The world had always judged women harshly. A woman whose engagement was broken was bound to attract whispers.

On the way there, Cui You rode up after us.

Our servants tried to stop him from seeing me, but I was curious what he could possibly have to say.

“What can I do for you, Young Master Cui?”

He gave me a long look.

“It seems I’ve underestimated you, Roujia.”

“There’s something I don’t understand. Perhaps you can enlighten me.”

I sneered. “We’re no longer connected in any way. Please call me Miss Xie.”

He smiled, apparently unconcerned.

“Miss Xie, when did you discover my affair with the princess?”

Once a person’s skin grew thick enough, shamelessness became a talent of its own.

Take Cui You. He had intended to murder me, yet here he was asking questions as though nothing had happened.

I looked into his eyes and slowly curved my lips.

“On the empress’s birthday, of course.”

He did not answer. He seemed to be talking to himself.

“You must have known the day Cuiliu delivered my letter.”

“What puzzles me is how. By rights, your investigation should have stopped at Cuiliu.”

His eyes were full of genuine bewilderment, as though we were discussing an interesting puzzle rather than when his former fiancée had discovered he meant to kill her.

Furious, Hongyu seized a water jug and emptied it through the carriage window.

“You shameless creature!”

“Don’t speak to him, miss. The sight of him will soil your eyes.”

Water streamed down Cui You’s face. He wiped it haphazardly, but did not get angry.

Instead, he regarded me with a hunter’s appreciation for his prey.

“Such cleverness, Roujia. I shall have to see you in a new light.”

I ignored him and told the driver to move on.

Long after we had left him behind, he was still standing there.

To Cui You, dignity was something he could shed at will. I did not believe public mockery over his affair with the princess could hurt him.

Wildfire could not burn out the grass; the spring wind would bring it back. He was just like those weeds. Give him the slightest chance to catch his breath, and he would start climbing again.

To deal with a man like that, I had to make sure he could never rise again.

Without Father’s support, he was merely Princess Ning’an’s consort. In the end, no more than her plaything.

A man of his nature would never be content with that.

He had come partly out of curiosity, partly to warn me.

But I had been given another life precisely so I could set out the board and fight him.

A dead leaf landed on the carriage window, then blew away.

When people could not hold their fate in their own hands, they were like fallen leaves, landing wherever the wind took them.

Father would protect me, certainly. But for how long?

Look at me. I knew Ning’an wanted me dead, yet I could only rely on the empress to exact this paltry revenge.

Even after an illicit affair and openly stealing my fiancé, the princess had suffered nothing worse than a few whispers. Barely a scratch.

Killing me would be easier for her than picking up a fallen leaf.