A Single Tie Of Long Hair Seals A Lifelong Commitment - Chapter 3.1

Chen Liangyu did not look back.

Chen Liangyu tasked Gao Guan with escorting the North Yong bandits to the Imperial Prison. She then instructed Jing Ming to return to the North Suburb Barracks first to report back to the Crown Prince and her elder brother, announcing that Princess Jiangning had been found safe. She herself kept a contingent of soldiers to lead and escort Princess Jiangning back to the palace.

The Red Mane, seeing its owner, excitedly stamped its forehooves.

Chen Liangyu was in a difficult position. The Red Mane disliked being touched by strangers, much less being ridden by one. Thinking this, she was about to order a young soldier behind her to fetch a carriage from the nearest government office when she saw Xie Wenjun reach out and gently stroke the Red Mane’s neck.

The Red Mane nudged her palm, displaying a rare gentleness toward a stranger.

“Does he have a name?”

“Red Mane.”

“Red Mane,” Xie Wenjun murmured, standing on tiptoe to stroke the reddish-brown coat. “The name… is very casual.”

Chen Liangyu gave a silent assent.

It truly was quite casual; named simply because its coat was entirely red.

The Red Mane lightly snorted warm air and then, to Chen Liangyu’s surprise, knelt on its forelegs and lowered its body. It was inviting Xie Wenjun to climb onto its back.

Chen Liangyu inwardly cursed the Red Mane as a shallow creature that only recognizes beauty, eagerly sucking up to the pretty one, not worrying about being stabbed to death with a hairpin.

After Xie Wenjun climbed onto the horse’s back and settled herself, the Red Mane rose. Chen Liangyu untied the reins from the hitching post, mounted her own saddle, circled Xie Wenjun within the bend of her arms, and spurred the horse forward.

The Red Mane was steady, traversing mountains like level ground, and today its footing was three times steadier than usual.

Chen Liangyu delivered the person to the Imperial Palace. The city gates would obviously not open again tonight. Although Yongdu had a night curfew, no one dared to stop or question her as she held the Crown Prince’s token.

After asking a junior soldier for the route, she turned and headed to the Imperial Prison.

The night was silent. The Sixteen Guards and the people of the Yongan Prefecture had also retreated. The figure of one person and one horse on the empty street was stretched long in the moonlight like a gust of wind, accompanied by the intermittent crowing of a few chickens and the barking of dogs from the households.

Since the matter involved North Yong, she remained vigilant. If someone truly was behind this, they would surely have other movements in Shangyong soon.

Since they had military waist tokens, they were soldiers, which made things easier. Using a few military interrogation techniques, she would soon be able to extract the information she wanted.

The guards at the gate of the Imperial Prison were in the middle of a shift change. Chen Liangyu presented the Crown Prince’s token, and a jailer led her to the cells where the North Yong men were held, then brought them to the torture chamber.

The ruined mud walls of the chamber were lined with rusted instruments of torture, and dried black bloodstains were clearly visible in the mottled grooves of the racks.

A moment later, a wave of increasingly higher-pitched screams, incessant and ear-splitting, came from within. They caused even the jailers outside, who were accustomed to all kinds of cruel punishments, to shiver.

A quarter of an hour later, Chen Liangyu came out, wiping her hands with a piece of wet silk cloth she had taken. The jailer bowed slightly in deference as he escorted her. After wiping her hands clean, she handed the cloth back to the jailer. “These few men are of great use to the court. I trouble you, sir, please fetch a physician to carefully tend to them. Don’t let them die.”

The jailer took the wet cloth with both hands, repeatedly answering with “I wouldn’t dare” and “Yes, yes, yes.” After seeing Chen Liangyu off, his colleague called him for help. He spat, reluctantly walking toward the torture chamber, muttering curses under his breath: “Every one of them is lazy and slippery. Why does such a small job require so many people…”

His cursing stopped abruptly the moment he stepped into the torture chamber. Upon seeing the scene Chen Liangyu had left behind, the jailer’s hair stood on end.

What kind of deep-seated hatred was this!

Could they even survive this?

After a night of hard work, the matter was concluded as the sky turned a pale grey, just before dawn.

Chen Liangyu waited in the cool autumn breeze until the yin hour (3-5 AM). When the morning bell rang, the city gates opened for passage, and she galloped out of the city toward the north.

Many of the soldiers were still asleep, having been drunk the previous night. Chen Liangyu lifted the curtain of a tent and asked the military advisor for a brush and ink. The deposition had already been sent to the Ministry of Justice, so she transcribed a copy based on the bandits’ confessions and placed it on Chen Linjun’s desk.

According to the confession, those men were a squad of straggling soldiers from North Yong. After the defeat, they lost contact with their main force and later followed the crowds to Yongdu. They had originally intended to assassinate high-ranking officials and create chaos in the Imperial City to vent the humiliation of their military defeat, taking advantage of Chen Yuanqing’s return to court. It was purely a coincidence that they ran into Princess Jiangning, who was caught in the crowd watching the excitement.

They hadn’t known she was the Princess, only seeing her in fine silks and believing her to be a noblewoman from some important family. Kidnapping Princess Jiangning was an unexpected bonus. Bringing her back to North Yong as a bargaining chip with Great Lin was the idea Xie Wenjun herself suggested to the bandits. After some deliberation, the men thought that bringing a princess of Great Lin back to North Yong for merit was indeed more profitable than killing and disposing of a body. However, they were temporarily unable to devise a foolproof plan to get the Princess out of the city, so they had to first settle in the abandoned civilian house to make plans.

The search by the South Garrison’s troops alarmed them. Seeing their plot exposed and the officers about to track them to the abandoned house, the few men panicked and planned to collapse the dilapidated house to destroy the evidence. Most of the roofs in that area had already collapsed, so one more wouldn’t arouse suspicion.

They were truly incompetent—more likely to fail than succeed.

The two countries had just concluded peace talks, and now a new conflict was brewing.

After everything was properly settled, Chen Liangyu was exhausted. Her body felt as if it had been crushed by a thousand weights. Her vision went black, and she collapsed into a deep sleep.

The welcome banquet was held for three days. The last two days were relatively peaceful, with no further mishaps. Chen Yuanqing, in a rare moment of elegance, spread out a sheet of paper and, using the simple military tent desk, began to paint.

He dotted the inkstone with water, and Chen Liangyu stood by the desk grinding the ink, yawning constantly.

She had only just fallen asleep when Chen Yuanqing called her over.

With a flourish of his brush, a painting titled Waning Clouds and Jade Geese Returning in Pairs was complete. Chen Yuanqing stretched the rice paper and glanced at it, shaking his head and sighing, “I’m useless after all. The brushwork lacks strength.”

Chen Liangyu, with dark circles under her eyes, leaned over to look. “I think it’s very good.”

Chen Yuanqing handed the painting to a servant. “Have it mounted.” He then turned back to Chen Liangyu. “His Majesty mentioned that the position of Crown Princess is vacant. Do you understand His Majesty’s intention?”

Chen Liangyu set down the ink stick, stopping her action, the sleepiness largely dissipated. “His Majesty wants me to be the Crown Prince’s second wife?”

“That is the meaning.” Chen Yuanqing replied.

The former Crown Princess was tragically fated, passing away before she was even twenty. Since the former Crown Princess’s death, the Crown Prince had been unwilling to remarry.

“Your daughter is unwilling.”

Chen Yuanqing had long anticipated her reluctance and was not surprised. He merely said, “The Crown Prince is enlightened and broad-minded, and he governs the state effectively. He is someone you can entrust yourself to.”

Chen Liangyu poured hot tea from the pot, presented it to Chen Yuanqing, and tentatively asked, “Father, what do you think of Prince Shen?”

Prince Shen, Xie Yuan, was born of Consort Xian and was the third son of Emperor Xuanyuan.

Speaking of which, they had met once at the beginning of the year. Xie Yuan had represented the Emperor to deliver a letter of condolence and comfort to Dingbei City, and Chen Liangyu was ordered by her father to ride out of the city to welcome him.

The memory of that meeting was not a pleasant one.