Chapter Text
"I buried her alive."
Wanning waited for the punchline. But there was none. She searched Shen Yurong's cold, carefully constructed face for a trace of sorrow, a hint of resentment. But nothing showed. And it infuriated her.
How could Shen Yurong casually throw away his beloved wife just like that?
Was he truly just some soulless, obedient lapdog?
Wanning stifles a laugh—one purely out of anger. Visibly, it surprised her too. Staring into his deep eyes that once made her swoon privately, now irked her terribly. "How gruesome. I'd hope for her to be demoted at least."
Shen Yurong presses his lips into a thin line. His gaze lingered far too long. "She is not some mindless peasant."
"Oh, did I imply for her to be my maidservant?" Wanning simply chuckles, a forced one. Her outstretched fingers grapple against the man's shoulders as she dances around him. At the last second, pushing him onto the ground. "How preposterous. A noble lady isn't fit to be dilly-dallying about like some maid."
Shen Yurong hesitates. Letting a few beats pass in silence, he finally speaks, "Then, as what?"
The princess smiles slyly. "As my concubine."
"Your Highness." The dirty scholar by her feet shuffles around, a look of disbelief and confusion swirling in his eyes. "You mustn't joke about these kinds of things."
"Loosen up, won't you?" Wanning laughs, robes fluttering in the wind as she twirls around her spacious chambers. Remembering the dog by the floor, she kneels just to maintain the same level of eye contact with him. "Where have you buried her?"
"By the foot of Qingcheng Mountain."
Having heard everything, Wanning dismisses the cold scholar, with furious silence.
Her men trudge through the muddy paths of the desolate mountain, the unfortunate storm raging callously as Wanning desperate searches everywhere.
Trees, leaves, soot — they all litter her robes and hair, but she doesn't seem to care.
She depletes her energy by fiercely digging each each random mud pit, her fingers aching to find just one solid, cold body that withered slowly through this turbulent rain.
"Eldest Princess, it'll take a whole night. The men won't suffice." Meixiang—her maid—whispers warily into the night. The howls of rain and wind scuffle about, sticking to her mud-stained fingers as Wanning carelessly digs for her corpse.
She turns to Meixiang, eyes blazed with madness. "I need to find her."
Promptly, she goes back to digging.
The mud soon turns mushy along with the scattered autumn leaves, crumpling on the dozen pits that were left by Wanning and her guards.
Eventually, she finds who she is looking for — Xue Fangfei. Her body is marred with various scars and mud, bleeding profusely as she shivers from the cold, her drenched robes amplyifying her cold state.
Trying to keep her madness from showing, Wanning turns to Meixiang with cold eyes. "Bring forth the coat."
Her maid hastily hands over the white coat of fur, to which the princess wraps gently around Xue Fangfei. The woman looks carelessly over to the princess, eyes blazing with intensity as she glances at her saviour.
"Who…who are you?" The other woman rasps heavily as the storm rages behind them.
Time seemed to stand still at the weight of the question.
Xue Fangfei was brought back to the palace. Her residence, specifically.
Meixiang doesn't question her orders when Wanning haughtily asks for the other maids for help to bathe the sickly Xue Fangfei—though it had been a challenge for the princess.
She doesn't question her when Wanning impertinently calls for Royal Physician Zhao, her most trusted physician, to check on the other woman's conditions.
Albeit, the good news was that Xue Fangfei hadn't suffered terribly; the cold illness had inhabited her body. Within a few days of rest, her normal state would be back to normal.
Wanning hadn't just expected for Xue Fangfei to be very, very weak.
As the woman's eyes soon feel heavy-lidded, her eyes finds its way to Wanning's piercing gaze, her hazel-like stare grounding into her princess's own ones, as if trying to pry answers from her carefully.
"Princess…" She starts.
"Don't speak." Wanning speaks imperatively, pushing a wet cloth onto Xue Fangfei's burning forehead as the woman groans softly.
Her unwavering expressing etches into worry at Xue Fangfei's state, as the woman stares the other way. "Why?"
Why did you save me?
Wanning pursues her lips into a thin smile.
For she doesn't know the answer either.
Only desolate silence remained in place as her answer,
A week later, Xue Fangfei recovers peacefully.
Wanning was the first to notice how she seemed unburdened by eating. For a week, the woman wouldn't eat or drink anything but the herbal soup. Now, when Wanning tries to feed her some pork buns, the woman accepts it.
How…cute.
Bringing her hand to the woman's forehead, she finds it restored its normal temperature.
"Good, that's good." Wanning says, looking away. "I was very worried about you."
"Your Highness is truly kind." Xue Fangfei murmurs, gripping the hems of the white covers.
Both were unable to look at each other in the eyes.
It seemed that silence was their only way of replying to their unanswered questions.
However, Xue Fangfei breaks the silence: "Your Highness, I beg to ask a question."
Wanning sighs softly, fingers gripping the edge of the cloudy bao. "You want to ask about that night?"
"Hm."
The princess looks at Xue Fangfei's lifeless eyes that strayed away, too afraid of her royal aura.
She could only laugh humourlessly, for she had no reason to save Xue Fangfei in the first place.
"Perhaps you didn't deserve something so gruesome."
Wanning finds herself drawn to the spirit of Xue Fangfei.
Once haggard and soulless, now carried wit and determination — something that was stripped bare of the Eldest Princess whilst she was in the Kingdom of Dai.
Xue Fangfei was carefree and perseverant, unlike her.
Petals fall from the old rustic tree hanging by the corner, its pink and white colour bedazzling the woman in front of her.
Wanning grins. "Stay still."
Xue Fangfei arches an eyebrow, but doesn't question it. The princess lazily walks to the branch closest to her, fingers delicately plucking off the flower. Pruning off the useless leaves, she returns to Xue Fangfei's side.
"Your Highness, you couldn't possibly…—"
"Oh, but I want to." Wanning's hands wave for Xue Fangfei to lower her head, as her hands insert the flower through her hair. Fixing it into place, she lets the woman rise up as the wind scatters the petals all around them once again.
Thump.
Yet, Xue Fangfei looked so beautiful.
Thump.
"Your Highness." Xue Fangfei says, the corners of her lips twitching into a pretty smile.
"Visionary." Wanning replies back, turning away.
The two stroll together again, dragging their feet through the cobblestone pathways as Wanning questions Xue Fangfei about her past.
The woman, having been betrayed, only told snippets of her childhood to the princess, nothing too major.
Though, Wanning would already know most of these stories through rumours that soared through the capital, back in her early stages of marriage to Shen Yurong.
"Do you play the guqin?"
The other woman stares blankly at her as they stroll through the chrysanthemums and orchids that bloomed in their presence.
Wanning could feel that she striked a nerve.
"Well, do you?"
"Before." Xue Fangfei replies curtly, glancing at the Eldest Princess. "Before everything."
Before his failed attempt of my death, was left unsaid.
Wanning gazes deeply at the woman. Depths of layers hidden before those blazing eyes that burned with a fiery temper allure her.
And suddenly, she found herself wanting to hear the melodies she used to play.
"Show me."
"Your Highness…"
Wanning chuckles dryly, leading Xue Fangfei to the garden pavillion. She lets the woman sit on the chair first, the princess sitting opposite of her as she looks back to her.
"You're rumoured to be the most talented girl in all of Huaixiang. So show me."
Xue Fangfei obliges hesitantly.
Meixiang fetches a guqin somewhere—whether it be from a shop selling instruments or the ones gatherin dust in the royalstorage rooms—within two incense sticks time, directing the other palace maids to the table where the two ladies sat to place the guqin there.
Only after she left the woman resting, did Wanning summon Li Zhongnan.
Sitting on her makeshift imperial throne, she yawns boredly as the old official cowered before her.
"Official Li."
"Your Highness!" Li Zhongnan cries out suddenly, arms raised and folded into a square as he kowtows to the ground, his old body trembling in fear.
Wanning chuckles humourlessly, posture raised as she begins to descent down to Li Zhongnan's level. The princess slowly circles the man, letting the aura of fear weigh him down. "Did you capture him?"
Li Zhongnan stays trembling, barely audibly.
Wanning bends her knees as she positions herself in front of the old official, using her fan to tap on his head. Once he shakily meets her eyes, did the fan lower to his chin to force this agonising eye contact.
"Where is he?"
"H-he…He got…"
Wanning's eyes darkened, Li Zhongnan cowering further.
"Oh, Official Li…"
"Your Highness!" The old official cries out, kowtowing again. "I've overlooked the men, it is an overstep on my part!"
"It truly is." Wanning yawns, resuming her casual stroll as she continues to intimidate the old man. "I wonder…do you really swear loyalty to Prince Cheng?"
Li Zhongnan shakily nods and utters continuous responses of an overly-enthusiatic 'yes'-es.
Wanning laughs again, stepping onto a sleeve as she glares at Li Zhongnan. "Since you let that Xue Zhao go, don't try it again. This time, keep an eye on Shen Yurong."
"This one thanks your Highness for her kindness!"
Wanning narrows her eyes at Li Zhongnan cowering, leaning forward. Using the edge of her fan, she directed his chin upwards to let his eyes focus on hers.
"Retract everything from the Xue Family. They are not to be harmed."
"B-But Your Highness…an official's verdict cannot be overturned—"
"Either find out a way, or…" She glides her fingers against her neck with an almost hysterical smile.
Princess Wanning's hands latch onto the table with a loud bang as Xue Fangfei stills, eyes fixed on her wild ones with such tranquility.
"You want to go out?"
She didn't know why she was being so hostile.
"I want to know what happened."
The princess rises quickly, brows furrowed with emotion—the feeling of anger, frustration and annoyance combined into one, perhaps. "You can't go."
Xue Fangfei purses her lips into a thin line, seemingly wanting to retort.
At the last second, her retort dies down. "I can't just rely on you all the time."
"Of course you can." Wanning gestures to the golden chambers, pointing at all the luxuries scattered. All her energy poured into saving her. "There's plenty more if you're not satisfied. I can—"
"It's not the riches, Your Highness. It's the situation I was thrusted upon."
Wanning glances away. "It's because of that, that I cannot let you go. The world is not safe for you to wander around."
Turning back to the woman, she finds her features softening at her sappy words.
"I have a right to know why I was killed so unjustly. Your Highness, please consider my pleas."
"Why don't you consider mine?!"
"Your Highness." She says lightly. "I am not someone of importance for you to be latching on so seriously to me."
Wanning clicks her teeth in irritation, hurling the brush behind Xue Fangfei. Her hands are destructive, destroying everything in her rage. The marbled table shatters as the glassy surface hit the floor. Her papers are scattered everywhere as it rips, dedication gone in an instant.
Anything, just to prove Xue Fangfei's point. She knew the woman was right; she was nothing of great importance to her.
So why was she still clinging onto her?
First she saves her, then she lingers on like a clingy child.
She truly is a joke.
Leave me, show me that you're just like them all, Wanning thinks bitterly to herself. A laugh escapes her slip as she looks at the grandoise mess she made.
What a fool, to think that the woman would care.
She turns to Xue Fangfei, who is still looking at her. Neutral.
Slip up, show me something. Anything! Wanning's mind screams.
But Xue Fangfei only smiles gently. Striding up to the princess, she wipes a careless tear away from her eyes — one salty tear she hadn't realised she'd even released.
Cupping her cold hands to Wanning's warm cheeks, Xue Fangfei states; "Are you done?"
"What are you doing?" Wanning's mouth is askew slightly, heart pounding.
The other woman rests a hand on the princess' hands, fingers intertwining together. "I still owe Your Highness my life. I understand the effort you had to go through just to retrieve me."
"You understand, yet you want to leave." Wanning remarks sourly.
Xue Fangfei sighs softly, flicking the princess' forehead lightly. "I won't leave then. But please…"
Wanning can feel Xue Fangfei tremble against her, trying to find the words to talk.
She doesn't let her, for she knows what she wants. "I will seek justice for you."