A Life Pledged
The Liang King had explained that the reason he had wanted to take his cousin Bai Jingyan as his wife was that he had mistaken a young girl in the palace—who had once handed him a handkerchief—for Bai Jingyan.
After learning that his cousin had been gravely injured and rendered unable to bear children, the Liang King claimed he had been desperate to take her as his wife so that she would not grieve.
But his cousin had treated him with cold indifference, and every time he saw that frigid expression, he said, it was as if a knife were carving into his heart. He could not understand why the young girl who had once warmed to him so tenderly had returned as a completely different woman.
He believed that the young girl who had once smiled at him so sweetly now despised him, considering him a worthless piece of trash.
And this was precisely how Dong Zhengzhen had fallen head over heels for the Liang King. Whenever she thought of him, her heart ached. Born a prince, yet condemned to such a pitiable life—and so her heart drifted ever closer to him, until all she wanted was to hold his heart and comfort it with everything she had.
The Liang King, for his part, was easily satisfied. When Dong Zhengzhen saw how long he had been waiting at the side gate of the eastern wing, she sent a servant out with a plate of refreshments. The Liang King tucked those refreshments against his chest and carried them all the way to Yanwo—and when he returned, he brought them back untouched, saying that whenever he held the snacks she had given him against his heart, it felt as though she were right there beside him.
How could she not fall for a man who treasured her feelings so dearly?
"I am a wretched fool! I am a lesser man than Zhen Cuilu! Zhen Cuilu placed first in the examinations, and I am nothing at all! Weak, cowardly, ignorant, and incompetent! Zhengzhen, you are so remarkable, and I am…"
The Liang King wept until he could scarcely draw breath.
"No, no, that isn't true at all, Your Highness."
Dong Zhengzhen felt her heart melting at the sight of his tears. She gently stroked his back, soothing him with a soft voice.
"You are a prince of the realm, Your Highness. No one could ever compare to you."
"Then… then how can I make you my wife?"
The Liang King gazed up at Dong Zhengzhen with glistening eyes, brimming with hope.
"Zhengzhen, I am a fool, a simpleton. So teach me. Tell me what I must do, and no matter how perilous the road, I will not fear it!"
Dong Zhengzhen drew out a handkerchief and dabbed away his tears. Her heart ached for this man rumored to be weak and useless. Born into the precious imperial family, yet forced to endure endless humiliation all his life.
The Liang King had mistaken her cousin for her, yes—but even after learning she could never bear children, he had gazed only at her with single-minded devotion. He must be sincere, she thought. With that conviction settled, Dong Zhengzhen hesitated no longer.
"Would you petition His Majesty on my behalf? If the Emperor grants us a decree of marriage, my mother and father will have no way to stop us!"
She spoke slowly, as though arriving at some great resolution.
The Liang King seized her hand tightly, his eyes showing not a flicker of hesitation.
"Last time, I mistook the Zhenguo Commandery Princess for you and went to my royal father to request a decree of marriage. If I go to him again asking to take you as my wife… he will never permit it."
Once the Liang King was seated, Dong Zhengzhen unclasped the peace lock from around her neck and pressed it into his hands.
"This is the peace lock I have carried on my person since childhood. My grandmother, Lady Shoushan, had it made when I was born, and it has never once left my body! I am wearing the bracelet Your Highness gave me, so if we must prove ourselves before the Emperor, we need only show this and declare that we each wish for the union."
"Zhengzhen!"
The Liang King bowed his head, his shoulders trembling as he wept. Then, clasping her hand hard, he went on.
"It will stain the honor of your wedding day. I am sorry. I am such an inadequate man that this was the only way I could devise… But I cannot live without you. Had there been any other way, I would never have chosen one that sullies your marriage rites."
"It's all right! I don't mind at all!"
Dong Zhengzhen patted him lightly on the shoulder.
"It was my choice, so it's not your fault. All that matters is that we live well together from now on!"
The Liang King nodded his head with all his might.
"Zhengzhen, I treasure you more than my own life. If I cannot have you, I have no wish to live! But Zhen Cuilu is so outstanding that I fear he will steal you away, and so for now I have no choice but to resort to this. From now on, I will do better. I will work hard and become a truly great man—I cannot let it be said that you married a worthless wretch. I will love you and only you for all my days. I will never take a concubine. This I swear."
Dong Zhengzhen was so overcome with emotion that her tears would not stop.
"I nearly sent the Bai family to ruin once, so Lord Dong will surely despise me. But for your sake… I will willingly apologize to Bai Jingyan and beg her forgiveness! Then you will have one less difficulty to face before your parents."
Dong Zhengzhen nodded. She was simply grateful that the Liang King would go so far for her.
When she emerged from the room wearing her hat, her eyes were still rimmed with red. Climbing into the carriage, she removed it and, fingering the tear-soaked handkerchief, smiled shyly to herself.
The Liang King might be weak, but his feelings for her were genuine. Her father and mother were a devoted couple—yet her father had still taken two concubines. Every night her father spent in a concubine's chamber, her mother's lamp burned until dawn.
Dong Zhengzhen had long dreamed of the love she had read of in romances—two souls gazing at each other and no one else, forever.
So even if the Liang King was an incompetent man who would never rise in the world, if he looked upon her and her alone for the rest of his life, that would be enough.
After drying her tears, Dong Zhengzhen found herself laughing again, unable to help it. She touched the spot on her breast where the peace lock had hung and felt her heart fill to brimming with hope for the future.
The Liang King, for his part, moved swiftly. The moment he left Shifangzai, he clutched the peace lock Dong Zhengzhen had given him and raced straight for the palace.
Once he knew Bai Jingyan could never be his, the Liang King had turned his thoughts to Dong Qing'e, the Inspector of Dengzhou. It was a pity Dong Qing'e had no legitimate daughter—but Dong Qing'e's elder brother, Dong Qingping, the Minister of the Court of State Ceremonial, did.
The Liang King was advancing toward his goal one careful step at a time. If he could take Dong Qingping's legitimate daughter as his wife, he could set his sights on the position of Crown Prince. The Dong family would surely stand at his side, and everything would go far more smoothly.
Bai Jingyan was merely a niece, but Dong Zhengzhen was a niece of Dong Qing'e himself.
All he had to do was promise Dong Qing'e and Dong Qingping positions of great responsibility once he ascended the supreme seat, and vow to seat their sons in high office as well. Then he need only give them the impression that he was an emperor who could be easily manipulated—a puppet on strings—and they would believe they could move him however they pleased. After that, he could simply order Bai Jingyan to be persuaded into serving him with loyal devotion.
Once he sat upon the throne, would it not be simplicity itself to bring the Bai family to heel?
He had set his course wrong before. So consumed with toppling the Bai family, he had overlooked the easiest path of all. In truth, seizing the throne was all that mattered. When a sovereign desires a subject's death, the subject has no escape.
The sun sank westward, and sunset hues bled across the sky. Even the great capital of Dadu was awash in gold.
As the sun slipped toward the horizon, a coolness crept into the air—a welcome contrast to the sweltering midday heat and the ceaseless drone of cicadas that had left everyone's spirits restless.
On the western edge of Qinghui Garden stood a row of towering trees, and by this hour their shadows stretched long across the grounds. Thanks to that spreading shade, the garden remained cool and pleasant.
Bai Jingyan was suffering from a chill, and even in this suffocating heat she could not use ice. So Bai Weizheng had ordered low shrubs planted along the garden's southern edge and trees tall enough to pierce the sky along the west—blocking no one's sightlines while keeping the grounds cool through the summer months. It was a fine arrangement.
After dismissing her maids to rest, Bai Jingyan bound sandbags heavier than usual around her arms and legs and prepared to practice with her spear.
Just as she was about to step through the door, she sensed something strange and stopped, fixing the courtyard beyond with a sharp gaze.
"My lady, I have orders from the Second Lady to report on the Liang King's movements."
It was the voice of the shadow guard she had met before. Bai Jingyan lifted the fragrant-bead curtain and stepped out of the room. The guard dropped to his knees at once and pressed his forehead to the ground, not daring to lift his head. Her martial practice shoes caught his eye, and the setting sun, streaming through the branches, cast its amber glow across the leather.
Bai Jingyan smoothed her sleeves with perfect composure and asked,
"What treacherous scheme has the Liang King been up to this time?"
"I was following the Liang King under orders when he took a room at Shifangzai today and spent roughly two hours there meeting with a young lady. As it happens, the carriage of Lord Dong, the Minister of the Court of State Ceremonial, was stationed outside. I deemed it worth reporting to you, my lady."
The shadow guard answered quickly.
Bai Jingyan's hand, still fussing with her sleeve, went utterly still. There rose in her mind the image of Dong Zhengzhen at the pavilion that afternoon, fidgeting with her bracelet, an unsettled look on her face.
Zhen Cuilu, the legitimate grandson of Grand Preceptor Zhen, was at this moment the most sought-after man in all of Dadu. Trained personally by the Grand Preceptor, honest in character and handsome besides, he had every great house desperate to marry a daughter into the Zhen family. And a young lady marked by such a household—even if the match never came to pass—would be held in high esteem for the consideration alone.
So even if Dong Zhengzhen did not marry Zhen Cuilu, merely being contemplated as a marriage prospect would have been pleasant enough for her. At the very least, she would feel no revulsion at the thought.
…Unless, of course, her heart were already given to another man.
Bai Jingyan clenched her fist. Was the Liang King deceiving Dong Zhengzhen in order to target Dong Qing'e, the Inspector of Dengzhou?
Was he turning away from savaging the Bai family—and setting his sights instead on the struggle for the throne itself?
If there was one thing the Liang King was a master of, it was deceiving women.
Everyone in the Dong family—her grandmother, her uncles, her cousins—were people of unwavering honor and principle.
But what if the two of them truly wished for each other? What if the Liang King deceived Dong Zhengzhen so thoroughly that she came to him of her own free will? Then even if the Dong family took no part in the war for the throne, they would have boarded the same boat as the Liang King all the same.
At the Emperor's birthday banquet, Bai Jingyan had assumed the Liang King would receive the backing of the Han King of Nando. Sooner or later, the Liang King meant to make use of the military power the Han King held—troops, after all, were always better in greater numbers.
The problem was that the Han King's only daughter, Liu Yafu, the County Mistress of Nando, was already betrothed to the Third Prince of the fallen Liang dynasty. The Liang King was a cautious man by nature. Without a marriage alliance, and unless circumstances left him no choice, he would never borrow the Han King's troops. All the more so since the Han King would hardly hand his army over to the Liang King willingly.
In other words, what was missing was something to bind the alliance between the Liang King and the Han King fast and unbreakable—a marriage between their houses, for instance.
And so the Liang King had set his sights on Dong Zhengzhen, the Dong family's legitimate daughter, come of age and ready for marriage.
Bai Jingyan's fist tightened. Her cousin could not be allowed to become the Liang King's weapon for exploiting the Dong family. Her uncles could not be left to be used by him, just as she herself had been in her past life. She had to stop him before he made the Dong family his horses and oxen.
"Where is the Liang King now?"
Bai Jingyan's eyes sharpened.
"He left Shifangzai and went directly to the palace, my lady."
He waited over two hours to meet Dong Zhengzhen—and then went straight to the palace?
Bai Jingyan furrowed her brow and turned the matter over in her mind. Then she connected Zhen Cuilu's marriage talks with the Liang King's journey to the palace.
The Liang King had gone to petition for a decree of marriage!