Come to think of it, the Crown Prince and Jiang Huan had not met in at least three years.
Three years ago, He Yunxuan had set off for the battlefield, and Jiang Huan had secretly slipped away from home. Only later did they discover she had followed him to the front. To cover up this fact, the Jiang Estate announced to the world that Jiang Huan had gone to a remote nunnery to undergo a tonsured initiation, praying for the blessings of Da'an and the safety of the people living on its borders. She remained there for three years, only returning after Da'an had won a decisive victory.
He Yunxuan had not forgotten to secure credit for Jiang Huan; when he faced the Emperor, he claimed that the Second Young Miss Jiang had sent him brilliant strategies that allowed him to defeat the enemy. As a result, the reputation of the "blessed" Second Young Miss Jiang grew even more illustrious, and the Emperor even bestowed upon her a marriage to the Crown Prince.
This was likely a result He Yunxuan had not anticipated. He had originally intended to delay, to find some way to propose marriage to Jiang Huan—perhaps even finding a way to get rid of his original wife in the meantime? But the Emperor’s marriage edict arrived first, causing He Yunxuan to lose his composure so completely that he kidnapped Jiang Huan and held her captive.
As Jiang Wuyan sat in Jiang Huan’s room, her thoughts drifted to these events, and she found them both laughable and pathetic... It was laughable because of her, and pathetic because of her, too. If the world knew the story of Jiang Huan and the others, would they only sigh at the unpredictability of fate? At the cruelty of the world? Would they lament their tragic romance?
"Knock, knock."
A knock sounded at the door.
Madam Jiang welcomed the Crown Prince inside. After a brief exchange, Madam Jiang felt obliged to withdraw, leaving only the maidservants and the nursemaid to attend to him. As the Crown Prince entered the inner chamber, Jiang Wuyan rose at the discreet nudge of the nursemaid. Standing behind a folding screen, she bowed, "Your humble servant, Jiang Huan, greets the Crown Prince. As I have contracted a cold today and am not fit to be seen, I beg Your Highness's indulgence."
The reason they had specially brought Jiang Wuyan back to impersonate Jiang Huan, aside from their similar build and voice, was their facial resemblance—as sisters, they shared a likeness of at least fifty or sixty percent. Most importantly, as a young lady raised with proper breeding, her temperament, etiquette, and grace could not be mimicked by just any maid.
No matter how unwelcome Jiang Wuyan was, as the daughter of the Prime Minister, she had been thoroughly trained. The governess had scolded her relentlessly; after all, whenever she stepped out, she represented the face of the Jiang Estate. Even though she usually hid her talents and acted timid and dull, they believed that speaking from behind a screen would be enough to handle the Crown Prince... This was what Jiang Qianming and He Yunxuan had calculated.
"It is I who should apologize for intruding."
Jiang Wuyan lowered her eyes slightly. The Crown Prince was unexpectedly gentle and lacked any airs of arrogance. She wondered if he was always this way, or if it was simply because he believed she was Jiang Huan.
Jiang Huan, the "Star of Fortune"—who wouldn't like her? Who wouldn't want her? There were even rumors circulating that the Second Young Miss was destined for the throne, that whoever possessed Jiang Huan would possess the world.
The two of them spoke through the screen for a while. The Crown Prince asked simple questions about trivial, romanticized topics, and she replied with modest, reserved answers. Sensing that he had sat for long enough, the Crown Prince rose to take his leave.
The necessary formalities had been completed; the Crown Prince was a busy man.
Jiang Wuyan was briefly stunned. She hadn't expected it to go so smoothly, or perhaps, the Crown Prince was truly a gentleman, never even considering stepping past the screen to see her face.
Noticing her distraction, the nursemaid pinched her hard.
"Your Highness." Jiang Wuyan called out to stop the Crown Prince. She touched the screen to gauge her position, then "naturally" reached around the side to offer a sachet. "This is something I embroidered myself. I hope Your Highness does not despise it."
This sachet had been prepared by Madam Jiang for Jiang Huan; they had to leave a good impression, after all. However, Jiang Wuyan had added a little something of her own into the sachet.
But as the Crown Prince reached out to take it, the memory of him helping her up and placing her fallen cane into her hand flashed through her mind. She hesitated for a moment, her hand gripping the sachet tightly.
"Second Young Miss Jiang?" the Crown Prince asked in confusion.
Jiang Wuyan immediately let go.
She stood up and slowly bowed at the waist, "A safe journey, Your Highness."
As Xiao Jinxu turned to leave, he glanced at the silhouette cast upon the screen and couldn't help but pause for two seconds...
***
The nursemaid did not bother to investigate why Jiang Wuyan had been so strange when handing over the sachet, for she was suddenly covered in red, itchy, painful rashes spreading from the back of her hands. She scrambled off in a panic to find a physician, cursing about "jinxes" and "disasters" as she left.
Jiang Wuyan didn't care. Now that she was alone, she took up her cane and left Jiang Huan’s room to return to her own. She expected that no one in the Jiang Estate would bother her for a while; they would likely forget she even existed.
Stealing a moment of peace, Jiang Wuyan went to bed early that night.
When the sun was high and the world was deathly silent, a bird landed on her windowsill, chirping a few times. Jiang Wuyan woke up. She had been prepared; she hadn't even undressed. She reached for her cane and made her way to the window.
The bird landed on her shoulder. She tilted her head, listening. A moment later, her lips curled into a faint smile. "You really did wait for me."
Carrying the bird, she quietly pushed open her door and, guided by its chirps, moved stealthily in a certain direction. After quite some time, she heard voices and found a place to hide.
In a secluded courtyard of the Jiang Estate, Madam Jiang was meeting with a man in secret. He was no ordinary man; he wore Taoist robes, appearing as a man of spiritual cultivation.
"Didn't you say it was already stable?" Madam Jiang questioned, her tone agitated. "Why is Huanhuan’s fate flickering so violently now?"
The man replied, "Her destiny was stolen to begin with. She must be near Jiang Wuyan often to stabilize it until she turns twenty. Once Jiang Wuyan dies, the destiny will truly belong to her. And as you know, over these past three years, your daughter has had very little contact with Jiang Wuyan..."
Jiang Wuyan’s eyes widened. "..."
She dug her fingernails into the back of her hand, using the pain to force herself to remain calm.
"Huanhuan may be a bit willful, but you can't blame her entirely," Madam Jiang defended her daughter. "Since she was a child, she has never lost at anything to that little wretch Jiang Wuyan, except for He Yunxuan, who actually chose that brat over her. Huanhuan just has that competitive spirit! That’s why... Brother Qi, please, think of another way. Jiang Wuyan is turning twenty soon. We have prepared for so long, we even went so far as to kill Yan Ziyao... We’ve done so much, we can’t let it all fail now!"
Jiang Wuyan bit down hard on her own fingers, stifling a scream!
What... what had she just heard?
Yan Ziyao was her mother's given name!
She had never seen her mother, yet her mother had been a shadow over her entire life. Whenever anyone mentioned her, they always said she was a jinx who had even cursed her own mother to death. Even she had believed it! She had even hypnotized herself into thinking that all the suffering she endured over the years was just paying the debt for killing her own mother!
But what had she just heard?!
She bit down so hard that blood flowed from her hand...
"Why are you so anxious? It is merely a matter of restabilizing the destiny. There is no—"
A sudden burst of dog barking interrupted Brother Qi. He looked sharply in the direction of the noise and shouted, "Who's there?!"