Taking the Princess as My Wife - Chapter 17

The Xiongnu Seek a Marriage Alliance with the Princess

Liu Ruheng did not dare to act rashly. She pinched her throat and said in a feigned, profound voice, “If you wish to kill the Emperor, the chips in your hand are not yet enough.”

The young lady let out a cold snort and tossed a paper talisman at Liu Ruheng’s feet. The light was dim, and Liu Ruheng could not see the pattern on the talisman clearly, but she felt it should be largely the same as the one in her own hand.

“Tell your master that if he needs evidence, he should come find me himself.”

Liu Ruheng feigned contemplation for a moment, then slowly and deliberately picked up the talisman from the ground, her tone turning slightly eerie. “If you don’t produce some real goods, how can anyone believe you?”

She quietly compared the talisman thrown by the lady with the one she held. Seeing they were nearly identical, her heart sank. This matter was indeed related to the Lotus Sect.

The lady took a deep breath and regained her composure. She said, “That item can only be found by me. You have no other choice.”

“And isn’t the same true for you?” Liu Ruheng tested.

Assassinating the Emperor—there were very few in the capital who would dare to do such a thing. Without a conflict of interest or a blood feud, who would be willing to risk the danger of assassination? Furthermore, even with an attempt, success was not guaranteed.

Liu Ruheng was gambling—gambling that the lady had no other options and could only turn to the Lotus Sect.

Although Liu Ruheng was not familiar with the Lotus Sect, the organization had appeared in the dossiers of the Court of Judicial Review.

The Lotus Sect Background

The Lotus Sect was a religious group whose followers were entirely female. One of the reasons it had been suppressed by the Left Minister years ago was that its followers were a mix of the genuine and the fraudulent, creating numerous mysterious cases with an extremely arrogant attitude, causing panic in the capital for a time. For some reason, it had seen a resurgence in recent years.

The lady remained silent for a long while. From a distance, she tossed a jade pendant to Liu Ruhang and said coldly, “After noon tomorrow, take this jade pendant to the Fuman Pawnshop.”

Liu Ruheng caught the jade pendant. Though filled with inward anxiety, she feigned a heroic air and said, “It shall be as the lady says. I shall take my leave first.”

With that, Liu Ruheng pushed open the door and strode out of the study. Watching Liu Ruheng’s departing figure, the lady’s expression turned dark and inscrutable.

By the time Liu Ruheng reached home, the sky was already beginning to brighten. A thin mist was rising, and she returned to her bedroom just before the rooster’s first crow.

Earlier, to avoid detection, she had been in too much of a hurry to examine whether the jade pendant had been tampered with. Now that she was home, she inspected it carefully.

The jade’s quality was excellent—a verdant green, extremely translucent, with a pair of hibiscus flowers carved upon it, appearing very fresh and elegant. To an outsider like Liu Ruheng, there truly seemed to be nothing suspicious about the piece itself.

The hibiscus pattern reminded her of the recently rampant Lotus Sect. While the motif was auspicious and commonly used by ordinary families for good luck, the fact that the lady produced it as a token after mentioning the sect made it impossible not to be suspicious.

Shaking the thoughts from her head, Liu Ruheng felt somewhat helpless; she had become increasingly paranoid lately, likely due to the sheer number of dossiers at the Court of Judicial Review.

As the orange-red sun gradually rose, Liu Ruheng let out a yawn. Only then did she feel the weight of fatigue; staying up all night was truly draining. After drawing water to bathe, she cleaned the clothes she had been wearing. The garment had been accidentally torn while she was scaling a wall and was no longer fit to be worn outside. Liu Ruheng felt a pang of regret; it seemed she would need to buy new clothes.

Before she knew it, she fell into a deep sleep. In her dreams, she seemed to see Jiang Shaojia again. That single tear of hers was searing and hot, falling right into Liu Ruheng’s heart.

What woke her was a crisp tapping on the window.

Liu Ruheng rubbed her brow and slowly opened the window. The sun had fully risen and was somewhat dazzling. When the window was opened just a crack, a white shadow darted into the room and landed on her shoulder.

Feeling the slight weight on her shoulder, Liu Ruheng turned her head, her squinting eyes widening.

The pigeon had returned!

Liu Ruheng hurriedly took the pigeon into her hands and removed the letter from its leg. Jiang Shaojia’s handwriting was as it always was; it only contained four words: “I am already well.”

Liu Ruheng broke into a smile. Was she reporting her safety?

Since she was already awake, Liu Ruheng dressed herself neatly and went to the study. The birdcage hanging outside was still there, but the food inside had vanished.

Liu Ruheng looked at the bird in her hand with amusement, refilled its feed, and turned to enter the study. After carefully tucking the Princess’s reply inside a book she rarely read, she suddenly remembered the matter of replying to another letter.

It was merely a response to Cheng Xuehai.

With little interest, she wrote back, penning a few polite, conventional phrases according to etiquette. After adding a few lines of small talk, she placed the letter on the desk to wait for the ink to dry.

In the afternoon, Liu Ruheng felt that taking the jade pendant herself would be too conspicuous and might reveal her true identity. After disguising herself, she found a child selling handkerchiefs on the street. She gave the child some silver to take the jade pendant to the pawnshop and retrieve the “evidence” while she watched from a distance.

She watched as the child presented the jade pendant, after which the shopkeeper handed over a small wooden box.

Proceeding with caution all the way, Liu Ruheng returned home and opened the box. She saw only two remnant pages of an account ledger. The contents recorded within were almost identical to the resources embezzled by Pang Jitong, and it also implicated other officials.

Those two small remnant pages made Liu Ruheng’s heart leap with fear. She put the pages back into the wooden box, her mind filled with suspicion.

Could the death of the Left Minister have something to do with the Emperor?

Pang Jitong was killed by the Princess, and the ledger of his embezzlement was destroyed at his manor. Now that the Left Minister’s estate was involved, the matter was becoming increasingly blurred and complicated.

Liu Ruheng calmed her mind, wrapped the wooden box in oil paper, and buried it under a tree outside the study. The Lotus Sect was not simple; this matter had to be reported to the Princess as soon as possible.

Time flew by, and in the blink of an eye, it was the twenty-fifth day of the sixth month. Liu Ruheng’s one-month leave had officially ended.

For the first time in a while, she donned her official uniform and rode her horse to the Court of Judicial Review.

After only a month, Liu Ruheng felt she had grown somewhat indolent. She couldn’t stop yawning when she woke up in the morning, truly unaccustomed to the routine.

Upon arriving at the Court today, Liu Ruheng paid her respects to her superior as usual. The Minister of the Court of Judicial Review had still not returned, so she again met with Vice Minister Lu. The Vice Minister offered a few words of concern before instructing her to handle her duties. Perhaps due to her promotion, her desk had been moved to a brighter location.

While retrieving items from her old desk, she happened to run into Cheng Xuehai. The two exchanged lukewarm pleasantries before returning to their respective dossiers.

The case of Pang Jitong was closed; he was sentenced to asset forfeiture, and his family was exiled to Lingnan.

Liu Ruhaeng felt the case had been closed too sloppily, but her words carried little weight. Furthermore, the results had already been approved by the Emperor. Unless there was a change in the throne, the outcome would remain the same.

As an official of the sixth rank (Sizhi), her daily duties were similar to those of the Registrar, but with added responsibilities. On one hand, she had to travel to escort prisoners from the provinces to the capital; on the other, she had to act as a supervisor for executions. Her workload had increased significantly.

The two other officials holding the same rank were currently away, so she had a room to herself. Had it not been for the tedious paperwork, it would have been quite pleasant.

However, Liu Ruheng spent three consecutive days processing documents before she finally cleared most of the backlog on her desk. Once the paperwork was finished, a few days passed in relative calm until the end of the sixth month, when she received her first assignment: escorting a prisoner from the provinces back to the capital.

Accompanying Liu Ruheng were two experienced bailiffs. A few days before their departure, Vice Minister Lu dropped hints and reminded her that the journey would be arduous and required endurance, fearing she might resign because of it.

While preparing at home, Liu Ruheng organized her luggage and dry rations for the round trip. Since she would not be alone, her disguise had to be flawless. At home, Madam Liu was so worried she couldn’t eat for several days.

On the day of departure, Liu Ruheng and the two bailiffs left the city, each carrying their own luggage.

The outskirts were sparsely populated, but every few miles there was a small tea shed for travelers to rest. Liu Ruheng and the bailiffs did not stop, choosing to pause and eat their dry rations only when the sun was at its fiercest.

After eating, Liu Ruheng paid the shopkeeper and watered her horse. The sun was scorching, but they set off again after a short rest. The two bailiffs were experienced; they were respectful toward Liu Ruheng but had little to say, keeping a polite distance.

Liu Ruheng felt this was for the best, as it helped hide her identity. Thus, she remained silent for most of the way, only speaking occasionally when the mood struck her.

As evening approached, the group arrived at a relay station.

When they arrived, the atmosphere inside the station was tense. A merchant caravan dressed in foreign attire was in a heated dispute with another caravan.

Liu Ruheng’s brow twitched. When the foreign caravan confronted the others, their hands instinctively moved to their waists. Moreover, despite the thin summer clothing, their frames appeared bulky as if they were wearing soft armor—they were clearly no ordinary merchants.

Being away from home, Liu Ruheng did not intend to meddle in others’ business. However, the foreign caravan was clearly suspicious. She glanced at the two bailiffs beside her, but seeing they had no reaction, she abandoned the idea of alerting them.

“The bird that sticks its head out gets shot.”

Bypassing the two groups, Liu Ruheng and the bailiffs requested two rooms. Liu Ruhang stayed in one alone, while the two bailiffs shared the other.

When it came time to hitch the horses, Liu Ruheng chose to go with the station attendant. She was uneasy; this horse had been bought at a high price and needed to be cared for.

After selecting a cooler stall, Liu Ruheng added fodder for the horse and gave it some water. As she was about to leave, she turned and found a tall man from the foreign caravan staring directly at her. Adopting the mindset that “less trouble is better than more,” she averted her gaze and walked away.

“The Tanhua (third-ranked scholar) of the Great Jiang.”

Liu Ruheng’s footsteps faltered. The tall, foreign man stood before a large black horse and said in a strangely accented tone, “Pretty boy.”

Liu Ruheng did not care for the provocative words. She merely looked back with a disdainful glance, let out a scoff, and turned to leave. To someone so childish, a counter-attack would only make them more excited; it was better to ignore him.

Though she appeared calm on the surface, upon returning to her room, Liu Ruheng immediately placed the dagger Jiang Shaojia had left her close to her person.

This man was not simple. After some thought, Liu Ruheng could only conclude they were Xiongnu, and likely of royal blood. To come here without sending envoys and while hiding their identities meant these Xiongnu were up to no good.

Liu Ruheng’s expression turned grim, and she instinctively clenched her fists. She suddenly recalled the information she had pried from the Fifth Prince’s guard: The Xiongnu wished to seek a marriage alliance with the Princess.

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