Late spring willow catkins drifted across the stone bridge. Jiang Yuyao's lake-blue skirt brushed the moss, and her embroidered shoes inlaid with southern pearls rubbed fine marks on the bridge railing. She gazed at her shattered reflection in the stream, and the pearls dangling from her gilded hairpin fell into the corner of her eye, like unshed tears.
"Yuyao." Jiang Jinzhao's black boots crushed the fallen petals on the ground. "Why don't you go to Qushui Liushang?"
Jiang Yuyao turned abruptly, the golden bell wrapped around her arm bumping against the stone pillar. "Big brother saw it too, didn't he?" Her knuckles turned white as she clutched the handkerchief. "The Fourth Prince wouldn't even look at me today, but instead stared at Jiang Songyi..."
"Be careful with your words!" Jiang Jinzhao held her trembling shoulders, "Songyi is your sister."
"She is not my sister!" Jiang Yuyao shook off his hand, and her jade forbidden steps made a messy sound. "Since she returned home, grandmother gave the east wing to her, and mother cut all the Shu brocade she had saved for ten years into clothes for her! Now even the Fourth Prince..." She suddenly choked, and sobs escaped from her mouth covered by the handkerchief.
Jiang Jinzhao gazed at the koi carp swimming in the stream. Last year on Lantern Festival, Jiang Yuyao waited for the Fourth Prince beneath the palace walls, holding a glass lantern. Even with her fingertips red from the cold, she refused to leave. Back then, he'd thought it was a mutual affection, but now it seemed...
"Yuyao," he stroked the lotus pattern on the bridge railing, "If the Fourth Prince can abandon you, he can abandon others in the future. The waters of the Eastern Palace are deep, it is better to find another good husband."
"Big brother, are you trying to persuade me to break off the engagement?" Jiang Yuyao suddenly grabbed his sleeve, tears welling up in her eyes like pear blossoms in the rain. "Go and talk to Songyi and tell her not to compete with me, okay? I only have the Fourth Prince..."
The "Strategy Essay" in Jiang Jinzhao's sleeve pricked his palms, causing them to ache. He recalled passing by the martial arts arena yesterday and hearing Jiang Songyi muttering "Shoot the scumbag to death" while shooting arrows. The portrait of the Fourth Prince was plastered on the target.
"Song Yi will never argue with you." He pulled back his sleeve, and the golden dragon pattern scratched Jiang Yuyao's armor. "Although Li Tingzhen came from a poor family, he was the top student in Bailu Academy. If it weren't for the sudden emergency during the palace examination last year..."
"From a poor family?" Jiang Yuyao stumbled back, her embroidered shoes catching on the hem of her skirt. "Big brother, do you think I'm only fit to marry into a poor family?" She suddenly pulled off the Pisces pendant from her waist. "This is a token of love from the Fourth Prince! He said he wanted me to be the Crown Princess!"
The moment the jade pendant fell into the stream, Jiang Jinzhao's pupils suddenly constricted. It was a Jiang family heirloom, a jade pendant with a dragon pattern, which Jiang Yuyao's mother had personally put on her on her birthday last year. How could it be a gift from the Fourth Prince?
"Li Tingzhen lost his father at the age of three and supported his widowed mother by copying books." Jiang Jinzhao stared at the jade pendant swaying at the bottom of the stream. "Last year, when the south of the Yangtze River was hit by floods, he spent all his family wealth on disaster relief. Even the emperor praised his 'heart and character from a humble background.'" He suddenly grasped Jiang Yuyao's hand. "Isn't this kind of character worse than someone who changes his mind every day..."
"That's enough!" Jiang Yuyao shook him off, her jeweled armor scratching bloody marks on the back of Jiang Jinzhao's hand. "Brother, since you think the poor family is good, why don't you marry Songyi to him?" She stared at her brother's suddenly changed expression and laughed out loud, "So you've always planned to save the best for your sister!"
Willow catkins fluttered down on Jiang Jinzhao's shoulders. He recalled Li Tingzhen kneeling in the snow in the late winter of last year, begging for medicine for the disaster victims. That washed-out blue shirt moved him even more than the Fourth Prince's regal dragon robe.
"Yuyao, Master Li is not an ordinary person." He picked up a willow branch by the stream. "This man is ten times more talented than me. One day he will..."
"What's the matter?" Jiang Yuyao broke the willow branch. "The top scholar from a poor family can at most be sent out to become a seventh-rank county magistrate!" She suddenly approached Jiang Jinzhao. "And the Fourth Prince is the future emperor! As long as I give birth to an heir..."
"Jiang Yuyao!" Jiang Jinzhao shouted, startling the spring swallows that were nestling under the eaves. He stared at his sister's distorted face and suddenly remembered Jiang Songyi's words: "Jiang Yuyao, in order to become the Crown Princess, even resorted to poisoning the Fourth Prince."
As dusk stained the stream crimson, Jiang Yuyao swept away, her lake-blue skirt sweeping the fallen petals across the ground. Jiang Jinzhao watched her disappear among the peonies, then bent down to retrieve the double-fish pendant from the streambed. Inscribed prominently within the cracks of the dragon pattern were the words "Xinyi"—the Fourth Prince's courtesy name.
Jiang Yuyao had long known that Li Tingzhen had some talent among the poor students, but so what? He was just a poor scholar. Yu Huanshen had told her a few days ago that the Li family lived in a leaky, dilapidated house in the west of the city, and that the whole family depended on him to earn a few copper coins by copying books.
How could such a portal be worthy of her?
If she was going to marry, she should have married Su Sheng, the legitimate son of the Minister of War and the eldest princess, or a nobleman like Yu Huanshen, whose grandfather was a first-rank official. Jiang Jinzhao had chosen for her, all of whom were poor scholars who were not worthy of being on the stage.
As expected, she is not your biological sister, so you treat her like this!
If it were Jiang Songyi, would he be willing to let a county lady marry into a poor family?
"Brother, have you forgotten?" Jiang Yuyao sneered, holding her handkerchief to her lips. "Two years ago, when 'Flying Flowers Elegant Collection' was published, Li Tingzhen criticized Master Yu harshly, and even my poems were looked down upon."
She deliberately twisted her flowered handkerchief tightly, and the corners of her eyes were stained with a faint red. She had understood Jiang Jinzhao's temper over the years and hated her aloof and self-contained appearance the most.
Jiang Jinzhao hesitated, "He only commented on Yu Huanshen's erotic words..."
"I don't care!" Jiang Yuyao suddenly raised her voice. "The Emperor has said since I was little that I would marry the Fourth Prince! Everyone in Jindu knows that!" She stood up suddenly, the forbidden steps on her waist jingling loudly. "So what if I become a concubine? It's better than living with the poor and eating coarse food!"
The cicadas chirped shrilly outside the window. Jiang Jinzhao looked at his nominal sister with a bitter taste in his throat. The words from his grandmother's room the day before were still ringing in his ears—when Yuyao got married, the Marquis' Mansion would be considered to have no such girl.
"A concubine is still a concubine after all."
"Then sister is destined to be the main wife!" Jiang Yuyao suddenly laughed out loud, and her gilded armor scratched across the mahogany table. "Who made me not reincarnate in the lady's belly?" She stared at the lotus pot on the table. The morning dew was still condensed on the petals, which looked very much like the tears in her stepmother's eyes when her life story was exposed.
Suddenly, hurried footsteps were heard in the corridor.
Jiang Yuyao turned to look out the window and happened to catch a glimpse of a Xiang-colored skirt passing through the moonlit door. She recognized it as the tourmaline forbidden step that Jiang Songyi had worn that morning, dazzling in the sunlight.
Jiang Yuyao suddenly pushed open the carved window.
Ten feet away, on the bluestone bridge, a young man in white was carrying a figure of Xiang-colored skin, swiftly walking through the corridor. The woman's golden hair ornaments trembled with each step, and her lilac-colored shawl fell to the ground, not caring that it was stained with mud.
Jiang Yuyao's heart pounded like a drum. Who else but Jiang Songyi could be wearing a Xiang-colored dress at the Peony Banquet today? The Fourth Prince was currently discussing poetry with a Hanlin scholar in the front hall. This wild man must be some humble student who had sneaked in!
"To do such a shameful thing in broad daylight..."
She dug her fingertips deep into the window frame, muttering something, but with a smug look on her face.
Today's drama will definitely ruin Jiang Songyi's reputation!
Jiang Jinzhao keenly noticed the subtle fluctuations in Jiang Yuyao's emotions, and a trace of doubt arose in his heart. He followed her gaze, but saw only the houses across from the White Jade Bridge, scattered and in order.
Before they arrived, Su Sheng had mentioned that the peony garden was across the stream along the white jade bridge, which led to the backyard residential area of the Princess's Mansion, which was closely connected to the Su Mansion. He reminded them not to cross the bridge without permission unless it was an important matter.
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