Han Zhan had just pushed open the door when a sudden gust rushed straight at him. He reacted swiftly and turned his head, but a Sky-Blue Glazed Plum Vase still grazed his temple as it flew past, smashed against the doorframe with a crash, and fell to the floor in pieces.
"Mercy! My little tyrant!"
A vase worth several hundred taels, gone just like that. Han Zhan clutched his chest and grimaced. "Which blind fool of a servant upset you? I'll tie him up in the stables and whip him till he's crawling around looking for his teeth!"
"Hmph! Leave. I don't want to see you."
Han Chanjuan sat before the gilded curio shelves, angrily twisting the handkerchief in her hands. The maids attending her were so frightened they scarcely dared breathe.
"Heh, heh... I know you're still angry with your dad. I did it all for your own good."
Han Zhan's face was wreathed in smiles as he said cautiously, "My little tyrant, you're a princess now. You're a golden... erm... a golden branch with jade leaves."
"I couldn't care less!"
Han Chanjuan twisted away, her reddened eyes reflected in the bronze mirror. She raised her chin, her slender neck like that of a proud swan, and said with unmistakable scorn, "I almost forgot. The dad who used to weave bamboo grasshoppers for me in a straw hut now wears gold and silver and sits on the dragon throne.
"You sent men to threaten me with slaughtering everyone in Watermill Head Village unless I came back. Was that so I could see how powerful and imposing you are? Or do you think your mud-footed daughter disgraces your imperial family? Should I kneel and kowtow to you, crying, 'Long live our emperor, ten thousand times ten thousand years'?"
"Now, now,