The sound of water splashed and echoed. After a long while, Shen Changyin finally walked out of the bathing room.
She kept staring at her hands—pale, clean. They had been soaked in water for too long; her skin looked almost translucent.
And yet she could still smell that faint trace of blood, hidden within the fragrance of soap, seeping into everything.
She sat down beside Xie Yu's bed, used a damp towel to gently wipe the sleeping woman's face, then carefully smoothed the stray strands of hair from her forehead.
Military Doctor Zhang entered softly. At a glance, she saw the untouched dinner on the table and the noticeably thinner Shen Changyin. Worry clouded her expression.
"You can't keep eating nothing."
Shen Changyin only lowered her head, twisting a strand of Xie Yu's hair between her fingers. "I'm not hungry."
"At this rate, she'll still be unconscious, and you'll collapse first," the doctor muttered. "What did you get out of the interrogation today?"
Shen Changyin stopped playing with the hair. "Very interesting. Do you know the Second Princess? She never attends the empress's Daoist gatherings and always keeps her distance from those so-called state masters. But today, the Sixth Princess told me something."
"Blood elixirs, children's tears—those formulas were all written by the Second Princess herself. She's actually a Daoist highly skilled in witchcraft."
Doctor Zhang quickly understood. "Then her recent closeness with the empress….."
Shen Changyin nodded. "I don't believe any of this is unrelated to the empress."
"Tomorrow, I'm going to the palace."
"Fine." Doctor Zhang routinely checked Xie Yu's condition. She had been asleep for nearly ten days now, thinner like a hibernating bear, yet her pulse remained steady and strong.
The doctor was still feeling her pulse when hurried footsteps suddenly echoed. She looked up just in time to see a white figure rushing into the bathing room.
The door slammed shut.
Only muffled sounds could be heard.
Moments later came the sound of running water again. Shen Changyin emerged from the bathing room, her face drained of all color, pale as paper.
Doctor Zhang's expression changed. "How long has it been since you slept?"
When someone lacks sleep and remains under prolonged stress and anxiety, nausea and the urge to vomit are common.
Shen Changyin shook her head. "I'm fine."
"Fine? Look at yourself. You look worse than the patient lying in bed!" the doctor snapped.
But her words could not change Shen Changyin's decision.
In the end, the doctor left angrily.
The next day, Shen Changyin went to the palace.
The empress had already been placed under her control.
When the empress first regained consciousness, her temper had been terrible. She had lashed out in the palace, smashing things everywhere.
Now she seemed much calmer. When Shen Changyin appeared, she was slowly practicing calligraphy. Seeing her arrive, she even smiled and invited her to sit.
Even in the scorching summer, incense burned in the study. The scent of agarwood mixed with medicinal herbs.
In the center of the room sat a large bronze basin filled with blocks of ice to offset the heat from the incense burner.
Shen Changyin sat down without ceremony. The empress finished writing, then set down her brush and glanced at her.
"Not staying at your residence to accompany the Third?"
Shen Changyin replied coldly, "I'm not a doctor. Staying with her won't make her better. But asking you a few questions might yield answers."
The empress smiled in confusion. "Hmm?"
"Did you poison her?"
The empress immediately shook her head. "A tiger does not eat her own cub. How could I harm my own daughter? Besides, she told you, didn't she? She came from my womb."
"I carried her for ten months and gave birth to her with great hardship. How could I hate her?"
Shen Changyin smiled as well. "Speaking of which, I recently learned something interesting. Why did all the palace maids who accompanied you during your incognito trip die in the south?"
The empress avoided answering. "You've grown quite thin and pale lately. You should take care of yourself. When the Third wakes up, she won't like seeing you like this."
"So she can wake up?" Shen Changyin asked. "She won't die at your hands?"
"I've said it before—I would not harm her."
"If I truly wanted to kill her, there are countless more effective poisons. She would already be dead. Why would she merely be sleeping?"
"Then I'm curious," Shen Changyin continued. "You went to such lengths to give birth to a child most closely tied to you by blood. What exactly do you intend?"
The empress smiled and picked up her brush again.
Shen Changyin curled her fingers and tapped the table.
Immediately, soldiers dragged in a line of Daoists, forcing them to kneel before the empress.
Each Daoist had a soldier behind her, holding a short, sharp dagger pressed tightly to her throat.
"Your Majesty, you show these state masters great respect every day, grant them high rank and salary. I'm curious—how many would I need to kill before you feel heartache?"
The empress smiled faintly, looking at Shen Changyin as though at a child.
"You really are very clever. Among my daughters, none surpass you. So young, and already a complete monster of power."
"Do you remember the day after your rebellion, when you came to speak with me? I thought then that even if I combined all seven of my daughters, none could outplay you. You're sharp. Ruthless."
"But…" She tilted her head. "My daughter has corroded your mind. She's made you soft. Hasn't she?"
From a box in the study, the empress suddenly drew a dagger. Before anyone could react, cold steel flashed, and she plunged it straight into the chest of one of the Daoists.
The Daoist's eyes widened in shock. She fell backward, dead before understanding what had happened.
The empress looked at Shen Changyin. "You won't kill me. If you do, you'll lose your last hope of waking her."
"Don't forget," Shen Changyin replied, "the other princesses are also in my hands. They're your final bloodline."
The empress shrugged. "I don't care. I've long known you hate me—and them. I just don't know what exactly they did."
"But it doesn't matter. If you want to kill them, then kill them. I only wish for you and the Third to be happy."
Strange.
Shen Changyin frowned slightly.
The empress's words were simple and direct, yet her motives were impossible to grasp.
In the end, Shen Changyin ordered the execution.
Blood pooled on the floor, spreading toward the bronze basin of ice. The portion that touched the basin began to freeze.
Even the guards who carried out the killings felt increasingly uneasy, though they endured it.
Only two people remained unchanged from beginning to end: Shen Changyin and the empress.
Finally, Shen Changyin turned and left.
Behind her, the empress said lightly, "She will wake up very soon. I promise."
Shen Changyin did not believe her.
She returned to her residence, handled official documents as usual, and spent some time by Xie Yu's side.
But her body could no longer hold out. She blinked once and slowly fell into unconsciousness.
When she woke again, a maid was entering with a bowl of medicine.
"Lady Shen, it's time to administer medicine to Her Highness the Crown Princess."
Although Doctor Zhang had not found the true cause of Xie Yu's coma, she had prescribed tonics to maintain her body.
Shen Changyin nodded. She was far too exhausted today; she could barely lift her hands.
"You feed her."
The maid was accustomed to this. She had been uniformly trained in the palace as a personal attendant and knew well how to serve.
She placed two pillows behind Xie Yu's shoulders, propping her up, then scooped a spoonful of the dark medicinal liquid.
The sleeping Xie Yu was obedient to the extreme. She did not complain of bitterness. When the spoon parted her lips, she instinctively swallowed the medicine.
The maid worked efficiently and soon had fed her nearly half a bowl.
Shen Changyin rubbed her temples, watching absentmindedly.
The maid finished quickly, announced her departure, and withdrew quietly.
Shen Changyin removed her shoes and lay down on the bed without changing clothes, facing Xie Yu.
Like two ants touching antennae, Xie Yu's warmth traveled through their skin to her own, bringing an indescribable sense of reassurance.
Gradually, she fell asleep.
Until the middle of the night.
Suddenly, she felt cold.
Instinctively, she reached out and touched the body beside her—
Only to feel skin as cold as ice.
She jolted awake, drenched in sweat, and rasped hoarsely:
"Guards! Summon Doctor Zhang at once!"
She discovered that Xie Yu's breathing was becoming slower and slower, her body temperature dropping continuously. Her expression was so peaceful—yet it filled her with overwhelming fear.
"Little Xie, Little Xie, wake up. Wake up. Don't just sleep like this."
She kept calling Xie Yu's name, gently patting her face.
Doctor Zhang arrived quickly. The moment she felt the pulse, her expression changed. "She was fine during the day. How did she suddenly become like this?"
Shen Changyin immediately asked, "What did you change in her medicine today?"
Doctor Zhang froze. "There was no medicine today."
Shen Changyin's heart skipped a beat.
Doctor Zhang spoke with difficulty. "Because her pulse was extremely good, I was worried that too much medicine would actually harm her body. So I specifically told your steward that we would stop the medicine for one day."
Shen Changyin swallowed. Her hands began trembling uncontrollably.
"Arrest someone."
Her voice became shrill.
"Arrest her!"
The maid who had fed Xie Yu the medicine that day was quickly brought in.
She had been a deeply buried spy—someone Shen Changyin herself had selected based on her memories from her previous life of the staff in Xie Yu's residence.
In her previous life, after being forced to marry Xie Yu, she had spent a period observing mourning rituals in the residence and had memorized every steward and maid clearly.
So in this life, after Xie Yu was granted her title and established her residence, Shen Changyin did not wanted any unnecessary changes. She had personally gone to the palace to select those same people again.
She had never imagined that in her previous life, there had already been a spy planted by the empress inside Xie Yu's residence.
It was she who had personally delivered this spy to Xie Yu's side.
Her eyelids twitched uncontrollably.
Everyone said she and Xie Yu were astrologically compatible, that she could bring good fortune and dispel misfortune for her.
But in her previous life, on the very day she married into the residence, Little Xie had died.
And in this life, it was her again who harmed her.
She harmed her.
It was her.
On one side knelt the maid. On the other came the sounds of Doctor Zhang desperately trying to save Xie Yu inside the bedchamber.
Shen Changyin's vision grew increasingly blurry. Her heart pounded faster and faster, as though it might burst from her chest that very day.
Yet she forced herself to endure.
She stood there quietly—like a willow tree in winter snow, nearly withered, guarding the last trace of green life hidden in its dry branches.
—
Xie Yu had gone south of the river to learn about Shen Changyin, but unexpectedly uncovered the mystery of her own birth.
Yet that did not change her plan.
She did not care much about her own origins. After speaking at length with the former palace maid Wu, she resumed her search for Shen Changyin.
After many twists and turns, she finally learned from a secretive member of the Shen family that Shen Changyin had run away on her own back then. The Shen family had sent people to pursue her, fearing she would bring disgrace upon them.
They later discovered that she seemed to be studying under a great Confucian scholar in the neighboring prefecture.
For reasons unknown, General Shen had issued a gag order forbidding further investigation.
With this bit of information, Xie Yu immediately set off for the neighboring prefecture.
There, she made an unexpected discovery: Shen Changyin had been studying under the name Shen Liuzhen.
At the time, she had lived in the scholar's residence—in a small hut within a bamboo grove.
She had possessed no wealth herself, yet had to pretend to be a wealthy young lady from a prestigious family. So she could only claim that she was noble in aspiration, longing for simplicity, deliberately rejecting luxury and indulgence.
Xie Yu stayed in that bamboo grove for a long time, sitting at the table outside the hut, imagining that her wife had once been a small, fragile young girl who, through deception and fear, had slowly carved out a path of survival for herself.
After further investigation, she soon discovered that Shen Changyin had not stayed long before moving on to another academy.
Xie Yu followed her trail and gradually uncovered what Shen Changyin had been doing—
She had been constantly transferring between academies, solidifying certain credentials, erasing others, crafting through complex means a believable identity for herself.
An identity with sufficient academic background—yet one that the Shen family could not trace.
Unfortunately, she had done it too well.
Even Xie Yu struggled to track her down.
All she could do was patiently stay for a time in every place Shen Changyin had once lived, slowly reconstructing the mindset of the young Shen Changyin during that period, deducing what decisions she might have made.
Gradually, she began to understand her wife.
She learned when Shen Changyin first realized her talent for classical studies. She learned how Shen Changyin had deceived her classmates. She learned when Shen Changyin discovered she preferred willow trees over bamboo.
The process of growing up is the process of continually understanding and refining oneself.
And through those faint traces, Xie Yu grew up once more alongside the young Shen Changyin.
Until half a year later, she finally clarified Shen Changyin's ultimate goal—
She had cleansed her identity and gone to the capital to take the imperial examinations.
When Xie Yu realized this, her heart began pounding wildly.
The capital.
The capital!
She had traveled the entire realm just to find this woman.
Never imagining that this woman had once lived incognito beside her in the capital!
She still did not know Shen Changyin's alias.
But that was enough to make her exhilarated.
She was going to find her. She was going to find her!
She immediately wrote a letter and sent it to the capital, instructing Jiang Fang to compile a list of scholars from the past five years who had taken—or were preparing to take—the imperial examinations.
Then she rode hard and fast toward the capital herself.
Upon returning to her residence, she organized her diary and the love letters she had written to Shen Changyin. As usual, she placed the diary in a drawer and the letters beneath her pillow.
Then she demanded the list.
Jiang Fang became anxious. "You want the list? Fine. First read these documents. I'm sick of being the acting crown princess. Goodbye."
A worker exhausted by endless labor simply walked away with the list.
Xie Yu had no choice but to begin reviewing the documents.
It was late into the night before she washed and went to bed.
Tomorrow morning, once she read the list, she would find Shen Changyin.
With that thought, a faint smile on her lips, she fell into deep sleep.
And never woke up.
—
Author's Note:
Foolish me miscalculated the rankings. I originally wanted to finish the main story at a perfect ranking spot, but now I can only sigh.
And because of overtime work, I didn't write much today.
But that's fine! Tomorrow is Friday! The weekend is here! I'll definitely finish this week!
Also—
In the previous life, why did Little Xie suddenly fall gravely ill and require a marriage to dispel misfortune? Because in this life, the empress poisoned her, and it affected her.
This story is actually a circular timeline, like an ouroboros—events influencing one another.
—
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