"Reading marriage fate?"
Xie Yu saw that it was her, and did not show any real surprise. Instead, the corner of her mouth lifted in a smile.
Shen Changyin suddenly realized that Xie Yu rarely smiled.
She complained at times. Her eyes lit up when she ate something delicious. She sulked occasionally. But at least when she was with Shen Changyin, she almost never truly smiled.
So only today did Shen Changyin discover that when Xie Yu smiled, she had half a small tiger tooth showing, faint but definitely there.
She also suddenly noticed that under the sunlight, the girl's irises were a clear light brown, like a shallow autumn lake reflecting the color of dried leaves.
In that lake, she saw her own reflection.
Her heart skipped a beat for no reason.
"Yes, a marriage reading."
She heard herself say this.
Xie Yu glanced lightly at her palm.
"Favored by the heavens, destined for great achievements. Congratulations, your future is filled with rank and fortune."
"But the marriage line is broken. True affection is hard to find. A fate as cold as the stone of the Three Lives."
Xie Yu lifted her own palm and wiggled it. "Oh dear, and look at that, our birth charts even clash. Not a trace of romantic fate."
Her smile vanished sharply, her voice cutting like a blade. "Shen Changyin, have you not acted enough in front of me?"
Shen Changyin felt as if a needle had stabbed hard into her palm—brief, sharp, painful.
She curled her fingers inward, the smile fading from her lips though her tone remained gentle. "Your Highness, what is this attitude supposed to mean?"
Old Jin understood the situation and immediately had the soldiers disperse the surrounding crowd, then stepped back with her men.
Soon, at the entrance of Little Sweetwater Alley, only a fake Taoist and a fake customer remained.
"You used my name to open military farmlands in the northern outskirts." Xie Yu said coldly.
"Yes." Shen Changyin admitted without hesitation. "How did Your Highness find out?"
"People in the south of the city went to your station to work as tenant farmers. When I heard, I personally went to the northern outskirts. I want to know what gives you the right."
The early spring wind came in waves. One moment it was warm and gentle, the next it carried the winter's lingering chill, brushing across their cold wrists.
Shen Changyin suddenly laughed. "Your Highness, do you know how renowned you are in the northern outskirts now?"
"Because the Valiant Army never breaks its promises, pays on time, and never abuses tenants. Everyone there knows your benevolence and trusts your commands. And you do not even need to do anything. I have placed this power directly into your hands."
Xie Yu clenched her fists, anger burning in her eyes. "I never wanted any of that. You secretly used my name. As you said, they are willing to do things because of my title. That means they become my responsibility. I do not want to bear that. But you forced it onto me."
"No. You bound that responsibility to yourself."
Shen Changyin sounded almost regretful. "I told you before that if you want to keep yourself untouched by the world, you must learn indifference. Unfortunately, you never learned."
"Your Highness, do you know this? The northern outskirts were once divided up by the aristocratic families. Your sisters have tried for years to implant their influence there, yet none succeeded."
"And now this power that everyone envies has fallen into your hands simply because you and I are to be married."
"Then go marry one of them! Why did you choose to deceive me?!" Xie Yu's words burst out without filter, her chest heaving.
She looked at Shen Changyin—this young regent of high rank and authority, not wearing white today but dressed in fresh spring green.
Yet she still felt like the eternal snow atop a high mountain, unchanged by anything or anyone.
Sunlight might make that snow look bright and pure like sugar crystals, but snow was forever just snow.
And suddenly Xie Yu understood—Shen Changyin could not understand her, just as she could not understand Shen Changyin.
She calmed.
Shen Changyin looked at her and felt something slipping from her grasp.
"You are right." Xie Yu no longer argued. "Congratulations, you caught me once again."
She stood up and removed the Taoist robe she wore. "I am leaving again. According to our agreement, you cannot start searching for me until half a day has passed."
"Goodbye."
She stepped around the small table and walked away without hesitation. She did not look back.
Shen Changyin remained seated. Beneath her wrist lay a stack of finished protective charms. A gust of wind blew through, making the yellow paper rustle beneath her hand.
Cheap vermillion stained her palm red.
"My General."
Old Jin stood beside her, worried.
"You heard her. Begin searching after half a day."
Shen Changyin's voice was cold.
Old Jin saw her expression and felt a sudden dread. She lowered her head respectfully. "Yes."
That night, she gathered all her spies, trying to track the Third Princess's movements after leaving Little Sweetwater Alley.
All she learned was that the princess returned to the dilapidated temple, gave the money to the beggars there, and never came out again.
Old Jin led her people straight to the place and surrounded the temple. When they rushed in, the beggars begged for mercy in panic.
They turned the temple upside down but found no trace of the princess.
Something was wrong.
She had placed two spies by the temple. One had returned earlier with updates, and the other was still monitoring nonstop. Both spies were veterans trained since the northwest campaign, skilled in reconnaissance and disguise. The Third Princess should not have been able to slip past them under their noses.
But she did.
The tall Buddha statue was old, worn, and mottled, its lowered gaze full of mercy as it looked upon the hall lined with straw and broken cloth that formed makeshift beds.
The ragged beggars trembled as they begged for their lives.
Old Jin suddenly realized that even she herself had never lived in a place like this.
Yet the precious Third Princess had lived here for days.
She looked at the neat straw bed that belonged to Xie Yu and immediately sent someone riding fast to report to Shen Changyin, asking if she should come see it herself.
The reply was brief. "No need. Since we will bring her back eventually, this temple no longer matters. Go search elsewhere. Move quickly."
That night, Old Jin too thought they would soon find the princess.
It had always been this way—even if she could not catch her within three days, she always had solid leads.
But this time was different.
Five days passed. The Third Princess had vanished like a pebble sinking into the sea.
After so long, Old Jin had grown familiar with the princess's habits. Even though she was born in the palace, she never hid in mansions. She always disappeared among the common folk.
After her own unit found nothing, Old Jin mobilized every scout in the army. They swept through every street and alley in the capital twice.
Yet still, there was no trace of the Third Princess.
She had no choice but to consider the possibility that the Princess had already left the city, and therefore had to report this to Shen Changyin.
That afternoon, inside the former Prime Minister's residence.
The sun hung in the western sky. Through the window it cast a clear dividing line across the chessboard before Shen Changyin.
A famous endgame was already arranged on the board. Shen Changyin held a black stone between her fingers, rubbing the smooth edge with her fingertip.
"My General." Old Jin knelt on one knee, head lowered. "It is my incompetence."
"You truly are incompetent." Shen Changyin looked down slightly. "But this has nothing to do with Xie Yu. She will be caught eventually. I am not worried."
"The problem is that she left the city under our very noses, yet we do not know when or how. I cannot believe that the army I personally trained has grown so lax."
Old Jin lowered her head further. "After arriving in the capital, the soldiers have indeed grown complacent. The scouts are my responsibility. It is my fault. I will take punishment."
"Then make up for it with merit."
Shen Changyin placed a stone on the board and straightened her back. The lines on the expensive chessboard were clean and sharp, the black and white stones scattered in clear contrast.
"Whether it is Xie Yu's whereabouts or the movements within the capital, I want them as clear as this board."
"I obey!"
Old Jin said: "I will take people out of the city immediately to search for the Third Princess!"
"Take that Officer Wei from the other day. Divide into north and south and search."
Shen Changyin picked up another stone. She did not place it, only rolled it between her fingers. "She cannot escape my grasp."
After that day, Old Jin led nearly three hundred scouts and soldiers to search around the capital with great commotion.
Even ordinary civilians worried about the disturbance.
"My goodness, what's going on? Two officials came today asking if any strangers entered our village."
Southern outskirts of the capital, Jing Shui Village.
Seventy-year-old Granny Jiang leaned on a cane and hurried to the large tree in the village center. "Is there some fugitive running around?"
"Our whole village is relatives. What strangers would we have? They're bothering me so much I cannot even play chess. If I had known, I wouldn't have taken the village chief job two years ago."
She reached the stone-carved chess table under the tree and tapped her cane, raising a puff of dust. "Dayu, when is it my turn?"
The young woman named Dayu didn't even answer yet when the old woman playing against her snapped, "Do you not understand what first come, first served means? And you're our village chief."
"Check." The young woman moved a pawn slightly. "That will be five coins."
"Move aside, move aside. You lost so now it's my turn." Granny Jiang plopped herself across the board. "Dayu, I have been studying many famous chess manuals lately."
"You've lost seventy coins to me already, Grandma. Famous manuals my foot."
The young woman lifted her head. It was none other than Xie Yu disguised as Jiang Yu. "How are you supposed to lead our Jiang family to prosperity like this?"
"You little brat!" Granny Jiang laughed and scolded. "By seniority I am your great-great-aunt."
"But in chess, even if you were my great-great-great-aunt, you still can't beat me." Xie Yu raised a brow.
"Stop talking nonsense and play!" Granny Jiang set up the board again and moved a pawn forward.
Xie Yu shook her head helplessly, her smile showing her small tiger tooth. "No tabs today. Five coins per game, not a coin less."
Before the game even finished, another young villager ran over from the entrance. "Village Chief! Another official came. Says she serves the Regent and that we must report any strangers we see."
Granny Jiang was already frowning over how to save her elephant piece. Hearing this, she snapped fully, slapped the table, and said, "Strangers! Strangers! Where would we get strangers? Are you a stranger? Or is our Dayu a stranger? Say it, maybe I'm the stranger!"
"Exactly!" Xie Yu applauded. "Our village is full of decent, honest families. They're truly confused if they think they'll find anyone here!"
"And also..." She moved her cannon. "Grandma, checkmate. Pay up."
Granny Jiang looked down, slapped her thigh, and shouted, "What is this?! Why is your cannon there!"
Xie Yu laughed as she reset the board. Her eyes brushed past the young man who brought the message. "You keep watching how I play. You need to watch how you move first."
"Chess feels like every piece is in your hand, like you control everything. But once you place your move, victory or defeat is not certain."
Capital, former Prime Minister's residence.
A black stone dropped onto the board with a crisp clack.
Shen Changyin stared at the game before her, then took another stone and squeezed it hard until her fingertips turned white.
The soldier reporting stood silently, not daring to breathe loudly.
Eight days now. Not only had they failed to capture the Princess, they did not even have a single lead.
Only seven days remained before their one-month agreement. Yet she seemed to have vanished into thin air.
"You may go." Shen Changyin said nothing more and waved the soldier away.
The room was now empty except for her.
She looked up at the window. On the tree in the courtyard, tiny buds the size of rice grains were beginning to swell.
She closed her eyes.
This courtyard, that person—both were supposed to fall into her hands.
That chess piece, the one meant to move exactly as she intended, had slipped out of her control.
She opened her eyes suddenly and swept the entire chessboard clean. The pieces scattered across the floor like sudden rain, landing with sharp clinks.
Ever since returning from death, she had calculated everything perfectly. She thought nothing could ever make her lose control again.
She was like a fire burned to embers, nothing left but ash.
Yet now, flickering within those ashes—tiny, long-forgotten—was…
Anger
—
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