Chapter 42

Chapter 42: Watch Out for the Third Princess

Lin Yu Jiao twisted her embroidered handkerchief until her knuckles whitened, brows drawn tight as she stared down her eldest sister the moment she stepped through the courtyard gate.

Lin Yu Wan wore fitted training clothes—neat, capable—but the high bun she always kept perfectly bound had loosened. A few damp strands clung to her neck, darkened with sweat.

With that look, Yu Jiao would have sworn she’d crawled back from that wretched military camp.

“Eldest Sister, why did you go to Father’s camp again?”

The anger in Lin Yu Jiao’s voice refused to stay buried.

“Mother told you already—go less. She keeps saying a young lady playing with blades and spears will ruin her prospects if word gets out!”

Lin Yu Wan didn’t look bothered in the slightest. She only shoved the brocade box Lu Chen had given her deeper into her sleeve, as if hiding it were an idle habit.

She wiped at her temple, eyelids barely lifting. “I went to deliver something.”

Then she tilted her head and glanced at Lin Yu Jiao, cool and unimpressed.

“Or would you like to deliver it next time?”

“I’m not going!” Lin Yu Jiao snapped, pressing the handkerchief over her mouth and nose, disgust twisting her pretty face. “That place stinks. All sweat and rust. Why not send the page boy to run it over? Why do you have to go yourself?”

Lin Yu Wan’s mouth tugged once, faint and sharp, and she let the subject die.

Her gaze drifted past the courtyard, as if her thoughts had already gone somewhere else.

Just then, Matron Wang hurried over from Mother’s side and dipped into a quick curtsy.

“Eldest Miss, Second Miss—Madam asks that you bring Third Miss and come at once. She says there’s something important to remind you.”

The three sisters had barely taken their seats in Second Madam’s room when Second Madam hauled them close, eyes bright, voice dropping into a conspiratorial whisper.

“Have you heard? Something big happened in your uncle’s courtyard next door!”

Lin Yu Wan rolled her eyes inwardly.

Her mother could ignore the sky falling, but gossip was always urgent—always life and death.

Still, Grandmother had recently forbidden them from prying into the main branch’s troubles. That alone made it interesting.

Lin Yu Wan gave her the opening. “What happened, Mother?”

Second Madam’s face lit up like a lantern.

“That cousin of yours, Lin Qing Xuan—the Buddhist Scion. Didn’t he go to Fa Hua Temple a few days ago for a dharma assembly? Well, halfway through, he rode straight back to the manor!”

“For what?” Lin Yu Jiao blurted, unable to stop herself.

Second Madam leaned in, delighted with the suspense.

“To save the little maid in his courtyard. The one called Xiao Man!”

She spoke faster and faster, excitement spilling over.

“They say a few jealous maids cornered her and beat her until she was nearly dead. Your Eldest Aunt lost her temper on the spot and sold every last one of those girls off to the lowest kind of place!”

“And that’s not even the most shocking part.”

Second Madam lowered her voice to a hush, as if the walls themselves might gossip back.

“My people say your cousin now stays with that maid in the Auspicious Cloud Residence all day, every day—morning to night, never apart. Even Old Madam was disturbed… and she sent over a pair of mandarin-duck pillows!”

Lin Yu Wan’s brows rose. “Mother, where did you hear this? Is it reliable?”

Second Madam jerked her chin toward Matron Wang, smug as a cat with cream. “From her. How could it be false?”

Lin Yu Ning, who’d been quiet until now, suddenly cut in with the satisfied expression of someone who believed she’d always been right.

“I told you! They were fooling around in broad daylight! You wouldn’t believe me—you even made me shut up!”

“You should still shut up,” Lin Yu Wan said at once, shooting her a warning look. “Cousin is famous for being a Buddhist Scion—calm as still water. How could he do that sort of thing in the middle of the day?”

Lin Yu Jiao nodded so hard her earrings trembled. “Exactly! Ning, stop talking nonsense.”

Lin Yu Ning huffed. “Then what, they can’t do it at night?”

“Enough.” Second Madam waved her hand, impatient. “True or not, if even that ten-thousand-year iceberg of a cousin is showing signs of melting, then it’s time your marriages were properly put on the table.”

Lin Yu Ning clung to Second Madam’s arm at once, whining like a child. “I don’t want to marry. I want to stay with Mother forever!”

Lin Yu Wan stayed silent, gaze drifting to the window. In her mind flashed the shape of someone under a blazing sun—training with blade and spear, sweat falling like rain.

Lin Yu Jiao lifted her chin, tapping it lightly with her handkerchief as if she were judging a portrait.

“Anyway, if he’s ugly, smelly, or ignorant, I want none of them.”

Second Madam sighed, too tired to argue, and moved to the matter she actually cared about.

“The flower-viewing banquet hosted by the Third Princess—how are you preparing?”

At the mention of the Third Princess, the room’s air seemed to tighten, the easy warmth turning thin and wary.

The Third Princess was the only daughter of Consort Li, the emperor’s favored concubine.

Consort Li had risen on a beautiful voice and a powerful maternal family, and she moved through the inner palace as if it belonged to her. Naturally, she raised her daughter to match—spoiled, arrogant, and lawless.

Other unmarried princesses stayed obediently within their compounds. This one had the audacity to buy herself a private residence outside the palace walls.

More outrageous still, the emperor turned a blind eye.

Worse, the Third Princess had a well-known obsession: she collected pretty-faced male favorites and kept them in that private house to sing and entertain her day after day.

“Listen carefully,” Second Madam said, her face tightening into a rare severity. “At the banquet, anything that has ever left your sight—food, wine—you do not touch. A princess like her loves hiding filthy tricks in places people can’t defend themselves.”

She pointedly fixed her gaze on Lin Yu Ning.

“And you three must watch out for each other. Especially you, little third. No running off like a wild horse and making your two sisters scour the world for you.”

All three answered at once.

They understood perfectly why the Third Princess kept sending invitations to the General Manor. The flowers were just a pretext.

The person she truly coveted was their cousin—Lin Qing Xuan, praised across the capital as the capital’s number one young master.

They had made excuses the last few times, but the princess was relentless. Invitations came like snowflakes. Refuse again, and they’d make an enemy they couldn’t afford.

So they would go, whether they liked it or not.

Just imagining the Third Princess’s painted, perfumed male favorites—mouths pursed into syrupy songs—made Lin Yu Jiao roll her eyes so hard it felt like her skull might crack.

Shameless.

Lin Yu Wan rose, calm as a drawn line. “Mother, don’t worry. We’ll be careful.”

Once they left the courtyard, Lin Yu Ning sprang back into her usual cheer, skipping ahead. The butterfly silk flower in her hair bobbed with each bounce.

Watching that carefree back, Lin Yu Jiao felt a strange flicker of envy.

“Eldest Sister.” She lowered her voice and edged closer to Lin Yu Wan. “Do you think the Third Princess will try something crooked again this time?”

Lin Yu Wan narrowed her eyes at the brilliant sunset bleeding across the horizon.

“Who can say?”

Her voice held no ripple, no promise.

“But whatever comes…” She let the thought hang for a beat. “We’ll meet it as it arrives. Soldiers come, we block. Water rises, we dam. We’ll play it by ear.”

Far off, the last light spilled over the layered eaves of the General Manor, stretching the three sisters’ shadows long, and longer still.