Chapter 315: The Turtle Turned Over_3
Chapter 315 -177: The Turtle Turned Over_3
As the nanny and palace maids left grumbling, beneath the crabapple tree in the backyard, both of them burst into laughter unwittingly.
Tang Xiaotong laughed and then suddenly stopped, noticing the sparkle of tears in Princess Yujia’s eyes.
The evening breeze brushed over the treetops, petals like snow fell upon her shoulder.
“The first time I rode a horse and shot wolves was at fourteen…” Princess Yujia smiled and softly said, “That day, snow like this was also falling.”
What she didn’t say was that at this moment, her heartbeat was even more intense than when she faced the wolves back then.
Tang Xiaotong looked at the petals clinging to her hair and remembered the legend told by the Turkic merchants.
The shamans on the steppe could transform people into anything. Tang Xiaotong suddenly wished he could become a snowflake, daring to fall between her eyebrows.
From outside came the sound of the Brocade Workshop closing its doors, and Princess Yujia had to leave.
Tang Xiaotong escorted her to the alley entrance, the setting sun stretching their shadows long.
As they were about to part, Tang Xiaotong suddenly took out a cloth bag from his bosom: “Almost forgot, these are plums I preserved myself with apricot flower honey…”
Yujia opened the cloth bag, a few plums arranged in the shape of the Big Dipper. In Turkic tradition, this was a signpost guiding wanderers home.
Princess Yujia abruptly looked up and saw the tenderness in Tang Xiaotong’s eyes that he hadn’t yet concealed.
“You…”
Yujia’s voice was as light as petals falling to the ground.
“Uh… this humble one has overstepped.”
Tang Xiaotong awkwardly stepped back half a pace in salute, fearing Princess Yujia would be upset, but unexpectedly, he heard Yujia softly say, “Tomorrow, I will come again to taste whatever you call chicken feet.”
Saying so, Princess Yujia turned away with a full smile.
Watching Princess Yujia’s departing figure, Tang Xiaotong touched his heart, where a pearl from her cloak had fallen and was now burning…
Tang Xiaotong picked up the door board to close it, but saw Princess Changle wearing a cloak embroidered with black clouds, walking lifelessly on the streets of the Capital City.
Tang Xiaotong sneered, “Bang” the door board closed, the sound of the latch falling echoing sharply in the twilight.
Through the gap in the door board, he glimpsed Princess Changle had grown much thinner than she was days ago.
The black cloak draped over her body, the golden cloud embroidery pattern on it should have shone brilliantly under the sunset, but now appeared lifeless.
That lonely figure staggered forward, like a body drained of its soul.
“Heh, retribution.”
Tang Xiaotong spat on the ground, wiped his mouth with the back of his hand.
He remembered the days ago the guard of the Commandery Princess beat Zhang to death for fighting over a shop. Back then, the woman sat inside the sedan chair without even lifting the curtain.
On the cobblestone street, Princess Changle’s embroidered shoes were now covered in mud and grime.
She mechanically moved her steps, the longevity lock around her neck gently swaying with her movement.
That was placed on her by her mother at her coming-of-age ceremony. Now the lock remained, but the person wearing it…
In just an instant, she lost all her immediate family members.
Until now, she still didn’t know how all of this came to be.
All she knew was that at her birthday banquet, a fat nephew from Mr. Wei’s family took a fancy to her, wanting to marry her with sweet words and fine wine, which charmed her parents.
Yet on that very night, all her family was gone.
She had admired Zhao Zun for years, delayed her marriage for Zhao Zun, and devoted her most precious youth, but in the end, her love was unrequited.
Finally, she relented, not resenting the fat boy from the Wei Family; she was willing to marry the boy who seemed a good match.
Yet it was precisely that fat boy who caused the ruin of her family, turning it into what she felt was the biggest joke of her life.
The Wei Family people were now imprisoned in the Ministry of Justice. She needed to ask them herself, what wrong had she done? Why did the Wei Family do this to her?
The sky gradually darkened, the prison guard from the Ministry of Justice approached with a torch, the crackling of pine oil bringing her out of her daze.
“Commandery Princess, the person is in Tian Number Three cell.”
The prison guard bowed his head and reported, the firelight casting shadows over half his face.
The cell was pitch black, with only the silent burning of the pine oil torch.
Suddenly, from the depths of the darkness came a clanging sound, Wei Chengchao’s body lunged at the bars, chains clanging.
“Let me out, quickly let me out! I’m innocent! You wretched…”
Suddenly, Wei Chengchao’s curses ceased as he recognized the figure standing by the firelight.
Princess Changle slowly raised her hand, the black cloak sliding to the ground. Her pale fingers touched the iron lock of the cell door, her voice as light as in a dream.
“Speak, what relation is that fat boy to you? Why did you have him harm me?”
“Commandery Princess, Commandery Princess please look at me, I’m Wei Chengchao, I don’t know any fat boy!” Wei Chengchao felt like he was going to die unjustly.
“Don’t know?” Princess Changle’s face was as grim as a specter, suddenly leaning close to Wei Chengchao, teeth clenched.
“But that day, he openly said Mr. Wei was his uncle. The guard at the door also said he entered the mansion after showing your Wei Family’s Jade Pendant. If you do not hand over that fat boy, I will enter the palace, ask my aunt to execute your entire family.”
“Ah?”
Wei Chengchao’s eyes widened, his face instantly drained of color.
When he stumbled backward and tripped over straw, he fell sprawling on the ground, looking like a turtle flipped on its back.
“Pa!”
Beside him, the prison guard’s torch suddenly sparked, illuminating the hatred swirling in Princess Changle’s eyes bright as snow.
“Jade Pendant?”
Wei Chengchao quickly propped himself up, rummaging over his body, finally pulling out his family’s Jade Pendant from his waist, holding it up with both hands, constantly clarifying.
“Commandery Princess look, this is my Jade Pendant. I have always worn it.” Wei Chengchao’s voice trembled.
Princess Changle looked at him as if he were an idiot, “Not you, have that person handed over.”