"They used that child to distract you, to pull you away on purpose. Does that mean Cheng’er is still alive?" Shen Lingyun asked, deliberately steering the conversation.
Xiao Tianchi curled his fingers back with a hint of regret. "I don't know," he said. "But the Crown Prince is blessed by fortune. He'll find a way out of this."
She noticed that whenever he mentioned Xiao Jingcheng he always called him "the Crown Prince." She paused, then kept her silence.
"If that child wasn't Cheng’er," Shen Lingyun said, averting her eyes and speaking as if it were no more than a casual instruction, "find a place and bury him properly. At least he shielded Cheng’er for a moment."
"I know." Xiao Tianchi inclined his head. "I'll arrange it. Don't worry."
They left Wenshou Hall and handed their cloaks back to the eunuchs. Xiao Tianchi asked, "Do you still want to question Bu Hua? I have nothing urgent today—wherever you wish to go, I'll accompany you."
Nothing urgent? He had just taken the throne; the affairs of state could not be left to stall. He could hardly spend the day escorting her without the gossips and old ministers whispering that she was a temptress who’d ruined him. She could not afford that "favor."
"No." Shen Lingyun shook her head. "Since you already know he's in the prison, I'll go alone. His Majesty has business to attend to; I shouldn't trouble him."
Xiao Tianchi heard what she feared and sighed. "Lingji, you don't trust me. You don't believe I can protect you."
Her face went cold as stone. "If you truly wanted to protect me," she said, "you wouldn't have made me this empress. You'd have let me go while you still could."
The attendants melted away until the two of them were left alone in the hush.
"Did you hear what they said just now?" he asked softly.
She met his gaze and asked bluntly, "Tell me the truth, Xiao Tianchi—did you raise your banners for me, or for yourself?"
Her fingers, hidden in her sleeve, clenched into a fist.
He looked at his hands, thought for a moment, then answered, "I took the realm because I wanted it. It had nothing to do with you."
A strange relief washed through her. If the war had been fought for her sake, then she would carry the guilt of dragging an entire country into bloodshed. If it had been for him—if it had been his ambition alone—then the weight belonged to him.
Xiao Tianchi tilted his head and smiled, a small, confident curl of lips. "Now that the throne is mine, the woman I like should naturally be mine too. Don't forget, Lingji—you were supposed to marry me once. You belonged to me, Xiao Tianchi."
A flash of irritation crossed Shen Lingyun's face. "That was long ago. Now I am Xiao Tianye's wife—your sister-in-law."
Xiao Tianchi closed the distance between them and lowered his voice. "But when Xiao Tianye stripped you of your title and threw you into silence, you ceased to be his wife. He didn't even bother to tell you he was leaving. He ran off with his favorite concubine, Feng Wenyi."
He knew exactly how to press. Even though she had never loved Xiao Tianye, the words cut.
She had almost been his bride. When the tyrant King of Chu grew ravenous and lascivious, and the capital filled with unrest, Xiao Tianchi had been sent away to quell uprisings. During his absence a drunken Chu King had tried to assault her; in her attempt to flee she was shoved into the lotus pond. Xiao Tianye happened to be at the banquet and jumped in to save her. With water dripping from her clothes and eyes on them both, rumor swallowed the rest. The wedding that had been arranged for her and Xiao Tianchi was, under pressure to pacify the court and abate scandal, given instead to Xiao Tianye.
Officially it was explained as ambiguous wording in the marriage contract—no one had specified which daughter of the Shen family she should marry. By the time Xiao Tianchi returned in haste, it was too late to reverse anything.
At first Xiao Tianye had been considerate, attentive even. But she was by nature cool and had been forced into the marriage; she couldn't return warmth the way other women did. Gradually he stopped coming by. They never had a private moment with only the two of them again; even necessary meetings were performed with guards and courtiers present.
People had said that a man like Xiao Tianchi would never stomach a stolen wife: when he finally overthrew the Chu King and took the throne, he would take her back from Xiao Tianye. No one foresaw that the king would be executed, that Xiao Tianchi would be grievously wounded, and that the crown would end up on Xiao Tianye’s head instead.
If truth be told, she had been lucky. It was Xiao Tianchi who had suffered injustice after injustice.
Bitter, Shen Lingyun shook her head. "So what? Everyone will say Shen Lingyun of Hexi shamelessly clung to the throne her husband lost, refused to die with him, and instead consorted with his enemy. Xiao Tianchi, that's not fair to me."
Xiao Tianchi's gaze sharpened. "Lingji, can you trust me one more time?"
She looked away, voice as cold as ever. "When it comes to ruling, Xiao Tianye outdid you. The first thing he did when he took the throne was to open his palace and win over ministers. He stabilized the court quickly—that's how he secured his position for twenty years."
A soft laugh escaped behind them.
"People without ability need to clutch at women to hold onto power," Xiao Tianchi said slowly. "If men would betray me because I insist on making you empress, if they are disloyal, then they have no place in this world."
The words hit her like a blow.
She had never heard Xiao Tianye speak like that. He would tell her, gently, that an emperor must bind the court—take their daughters into the harem, keep ministers' families close—only then would the realm rest. You are the finest of the Shen daughters, he would say; learned, refined—you must understand. Men have multiple wives; that's simply the way of the world. She understood it; she had not cared.
But when Xiao Tianye drank, he would barge into her rooms, grab her wrist, haul her up, and, intoxicated, roar that she smelled sweet and soft, that another woman pleased him more. He screamed, "Shen Lingyun, why don't you ever get angry? Why do you never fight back?"
Because he was the emperor, she had answered to herself. What use was anger?
Xiao Tianchi offered a different answer—one that nearly unmoored her. A man who was secure did not need to buy loyalty with marriages.
She could not help but wonder, in the hollow that followed his words: If she had truly married Xiao Tianchi back then, would everything have turned out differently?