Chapter 3, Chapter 3: Prayer
"Princess!!"
As soon as Qiu Shuang opened the door, she found the princess dressed neatly and sitting at the table having a meal. Behind her stood a man in black wearing a black iron mask.
As soon as she pushed open the door, the man in black looked up at her, his eyes sharp, like a razor-sharp scimitar piercing straight into her heart.
Qiu Shuang's breath hitched, and she took two steps back, quickly averting her eyes, not daring to meet his gaze at all.
Hearing Qiu Shuang's voice, Shen Panyan put down her chopsticks, looked up at her, and a look of surprise appeared in her eyes, "Qiu Shuang, what brings you here?"
Qiu Shuang swallowed hard, not daring to look at Lin Xiao, and instead focused her gaze on Chen Panyan. She immediately frowned, her impatience and disgust barely concealed in her eyes.
"Princess, who is he? How could you allow a man of unknown origin into your boudoir?"
"Do you know that once this gets out, everyone in the capital will laugh at you and the Empress, saying that the Empress has raised a good daughter who can bring any kind of shady man into her boudoir? Do you want to ruin the Empress's reputation in the capital?"
"Even if you are not Her Majesty's biological son, Her Majesty has raised you since childhood and treated you as her own daughter. Even if you don't think about yourself, you have to think about Her Majesty's reputation."
She launched into a tirade, her words too harsh. Shen Panyan opened her lips, wanting to explain herself, but a lump of anger stuck in her throat, and she couldn't utter a word. Her fingers clenched and unclenched, leaving only her frail body trembling in her dark hair, large tears rolling down her cheeks.
Seeing her like this, Lin Xiao frowned and stepped forward to block Shen Panyan. He then took out a token from his waist and placed it in front of Qiu Shuang.
"I have come to protect the princess on His Majesty's orders."
The guards didn't have their own tokens, but they needed a legitimate reason to take care of the princess, so the token was given to him by Shadow.
"You?" Qiu Shuang looked at the token in his hand, her brow twitched, and her eyes were full of surprise and uncertainty.
How come she didn't know that His Majesty sent someone?
Lin Xiao twirled the token in his fingertip, his voice cold, his gaze mocking and disdainful. "As the princess's personal maid, instead of serving her, you boss her around. What kind of maid was she trained by the Empress..."
He looked her up and down, then suddenly chuckled, "Heh—"
"you--!"
Being mocked by the man in black, Qiu Shuang felt a surge of anger rising to her head, but because of his status, she dared not say too much, so she could only grit her teeth and say, "This is the princess's bedroom. Even if you are here on His Majesty's orders to protect the princess, you should not step into the princess's bedroom."
"What is your identity, and what is the princess's identity?"
"A princess is of noble birth; how dare you, a lowly person, defile her?"
"Get out of here right now!"
Lin Xiao's eyes suddenly turned fierce. He took a step forward, and Qiu Shuang was frightened. She took two steps back, but then realized that she was being too cowardly. So she came back and didn't dare to look him in the eye. She looked away and her voice became weak, completely losing the momentum she had just had.
“I will take care of the princess here; there is no need for an outsider like you.”
He wouldn't have come out if the princess's bedchamber had been empty. Although Qiu Shuang's words were harsh, they were not without reason.
Lin Xiao turned to look at Shen Panyan, bowed, and said, "This subordinate takes his leave."
As the tall figure blocking her way walked away, Qiu Shuang's face reappeared before her. Shen Panyan immediately panicked and hurriedly reached out to grab him, but then suddenly remembered what had happened before, and her movements froze on the spot. She looked at him with almost pleading eyes, "Lin Xiao, don't go."
She didn't want him to leave.
If he leaves, Qiushuang will start nagging her again.
She didn't want to hear it.
Before Lin Xiao could speak, Qiu Shuang spoke up, "Princess, how can you let a man from another family stay by your side? Who knows if he might have some ulterior motive?"
Shen Panyan shook her head repeatedly. After Qiu Shuang's words, she became somewhat at a loss for words. "No, no, Lin Xiao was given to me by my father. He wouldn't do that."
"Princess!!"
Qiu Shuang looked at her, her tone somewhat urgent, "If you continue to be so disobedient, when Her Majesty arrives, this servant will certainly have a good talk with her."
Speaking of the Empress, Shen Panyan's body began to tremble uncontrollably. She felt a tightness in her chest, unable to catch her breath, until a dense, needle-like pain shot through her chest.
From as far back as she can remember, her mother's attitude towards her was never good.
She was sick in almost every season of the year, and her father would come to see her whenever she was sick.
Every time her father came, her mother would be very happy, and even her expression would soften when she looked at her. At that time, she naively thought that as long as she was sick, she could make her mother happy, and her mother would like her a little more because of it.
So she would deliberately wear two fewer clothes, eat two more dishes of pastries, and deliberately fall to the ground, using any method she could think of to make her mother happy and get her father to come and see her.
But she didn't expect that after the Empress Dowager found out what she had done, she was not happy at all. Instead, she scolded her and made her kneel on the bluestone slab in front of Kunning Palace to reflect on her mistakes.
At that time, she only wanted to appease her mother, and had no idea what her mistake was. So even after she knelt until she fainted, her mother did not come to see her.
Later, when she got a little older, her mother required her to learn music, chess, calligraphy, and painting, and to excel in every one of them. If she made even the slightest mistake, she would either be scolded or have her hands slapped.
Shenpanyan still remembers that year.
That year, the snow in the capital was heavy, and the snow covered the palace walls in a thick layer, turning the ground into a silvery frost.
Despite the freezing weather, she felt extremely hot all over, her body was burning up, she was dizzy and had no strength at all.
She was so upset that she refused to go to school in the inner palace for the first time.
Despite the palace servants' repeated attempts to persuade her, she refused to get out of bed until someone went to inform the Empress Dowager.
With a cold face, the Empress Dowager rushed straight at her as soon as she entered the room!
Shen Panyan still remembers the fear she felt back then.
That slap to the face hurt so much!!
Her face was swollen for three days as a result.
She did get her wish and didn't have to go to the inner palace to study, but her mother summoned a female tutor so that her studies would never stop, even if she didn't go to the inner palace.
The female teacher was strict; if you weren't careful, she would strike you hard with a ruler, leaving red marks on your fair skin.
Shen Panyan wanted to cry, but her female teacher wouldn't let her, saying that as a princess, she should act like one, and that crying all the time was a disgrace to the royal family.
The charcoal brazier had already been taken away, so she forced back her tears and, with trembling hands, practiced the zither again and again in the cold winter snow.
She was not feeling well that day. She had a fever, felt dizzy, and her hands were shaking. She couldn't remember how many times she was hit with the ruler, only that she eventually passed out.
Later, when she woke up again, she saw her father, the emperor.
It turned out that she had been lying there for seven days and seven nights and almost died that winter.
From then on, she suffered from palpitations and trembling. She was terrified whenever she saw her female tutor and her mother. If this continued, she feared she would die young.
Therefore, her father often sent her to the royal villa to recuperate.
But from then on, her mother's attitude towards her worsened.
Shen Panyan was terrified of the Empress.
When Qiu Shuang mentioned the Empress, she dared not speak anymore. She could only raise her eyes and gaze earnestly at Lin Xiao, silently pleading with him not to leave.
Seeing the princess's pale face, her white knuckles tightly gripping the clothes at her chest, and cold sweat beading on her forehead, yet her eyes were fixed on him, Lin Xiao's departing figure suddenly froze.
Seeing that he wasn't leaving, Shen Panyan, who had been struggling to breathe, suddenly felt relieved.
Her voice trembled, "Lin Xiao, you... don't..." go.
However, before she could finish speaking, a wave of dizziness washed over her, darkness enveloped her mind, and Shen Panyan's body instantly went limp and fell to the ground.
Lin Xiao's brow twitched violently, and he quickly stepped forward.
"Princess!"
Qiu Shuang, who was standing to the side, hurriedly followed, "Princess!!"
Lin Xiao scooped up Shen Panyan by the knees and headed towards the bed. Seeing Qiu Shuang still standing beside him, he immediately sharpened his brows and shouted coldly, "What are you all standing there for? Go and fetch the imperial physician!"
"you....."
Qiu Shuang was furious after being scolded by Lin Xiao again, but she knew that now was not the time to argue with him, so she hurriedly left.
Before long, Physician Lin arrived in a hurry, carrying his medicine box.
Because the princess was in poor health, she was accompanied by a royal physician every year when she came to the royal villa.
Physician Lin carefully examined the pulse, his heart filled with unbearable melancholy.
Seeing the imposing man in black standing in front of the princess's bed and her personal maid Qiu Shuang, she felt even more troubled.
People outside the palace may not know about Princess Mingyue's affair, but surely those inside the palace know?
Physician Lin has survived in the palace for over a decade, always protecting himself by not listening to what he shouldn't and not saying what he shouldn't.
Now, looking at Princess Mingyue's weak pulse, if this continues, she may perish here this winter.
Physician Lin immediately felt that his head was in danger.
Back then, the Empress and Consort Shu appeared to be on good terms, but behind the scenes they were fiercely fighting each other.
At that time, Consort Shu was the most favored concubine in the palace and deeply loved by the emperor. However, she was unlucky and died of postpartum hemorrhage on the day she gave birth.
The child she left behind, Princess Mingyue, was taken in by the Empress and raised under her care.
To say that Princess Mingyue was raised to have this kind of personality without the Empress's intention is something he would never believe, even if he were beaten to death.
Back then, there was a rumor in the palace that the Empress had secretly orchestrated Consort Shu's downfall.
But before the rumors could even take hold, the Empress strangled them.
Thinking of this, Physician Lin couldn't help but sigh.
Since Consort Shu died young, His Majesty has been thinking about her child. Although so many years have passed and Princess Mingyue's temperament has displeased His Majesty, she is still his child. If she dies in the royal villa, none of his servants will survive.
Since it involved life and death, Physician Lin no longer dared to hold back in his words and actions as he had in the past.
“The princess’s pulse is weak, and her palpitations are even more serious. If the princess’s body continues to be so weak, she may not survive the winter.”
A note from the author:
----------------------
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
