The Pampered Impostor Princess (8)

Nine years later.

"Hurry up! What are you dawdling for? Today is Princess Fu'an's coming-of-age ceremony. If we miss the appointed time, it could cost us our lives!"

"Where's the palace maid who sweeps here? Can't you see the dust? Who are you waiting for to sweep it up for you?"

The palace had been bustling since early morning. Princess Fu'an's coming of age was a major occasion, and every palace had sent people to help.

Jiang Xuefu was getting ready in the empress's palace. Her parents were no longer alive, so the empress would preside over her coming-of-age ceremony as both host and principal guest.

The young woman sat upright before the mirror, her hair arranged in a simple flying-apsara bun. Dressed in the elaborate, regal palace robes befitting a princess, her little face was even more charming and lovely with makeup. Her eyes shone with radiance as she glanced around, leaving even the empress, who was accustomed to beautiful women, momentarily stunned.

She teased the young woman, "Fu'er, after a young lady's coming-of-age ceremony, she can be betrothed. Is there a young man who has caught your heart?"

"Auntie, what are you saying? Fu'er still wants to spend more time with you and Uncle."

Jiang Xuefu linked arms with the empress and leaned against her, acting coquettishly.

The young woman's charming manner came entirely naturally, and her soft, gentle voice made even the empress, a woman herself, go a little weak.

"You, honestly." The empress affectionately pointed at the young woman's pert nose, then could not help sighing. "Time really does fly. In the blink of an eye, Fu'er is all grown up, and your Crown Prince Brother's son is already a year old."

Qi Mujing had married Chen Qingqing of the Chen clan as his crown princess the year before last. She became pregnant shortly after their wedding and gave birth to a son, Qi Chu, last year.

"Crown Prince Brother bears the burden of the realm, so naturally Fu'er can't compare to him. If I could, I'd take a husband into the family and keep living in the palace after I marry. When the time comes, Auntie, please don't grow tired of me."

Jiang Xuefu had an endless supply of sweet words, and the empress's heart bloomed with joy. "This child. All right, let's hurry over. It's nearly time, and His Majesty is still waiting in Qinghe Hall."

Inside Qinghe Hall.

The emperor sat at the head of the hall, with members of the imperial clan filling the seats to his left and ladies personally granted ranks of the second grade or higher to his right.

Jiang Xuefu knelt in the hall facing west. Behind her, the empress washed her hands, and the Duke of Zhen'guo's wife personally presented a silk kerchief and a hairpin.

After drying her hands on the kerchief, the empress stood before Jiang Xuefu and personally placed a gold hairpin patterned with clouds and phoenixes in her hair. The Ministry of Works had rushed to complete it over two months. The empress recited in a loud voice:

"Cast aside your childish aims and follow the virtues of adulthood.

Be reverent in your bearing, gentle and prudent in virtue.

Perfect your virtue and receive Heaven's blessings."

The palace was filled with celebration, but outside it, atop Kunlun Mountain, two thatched cottages stood amid the year-round cold and snow. Inside one of them, the atmosphere was silent and solemn.

An old man with graying hair and beard handed a token to the young woman kneeling before him. "Xue'er, once you descend the mountain this time, you'll have to rely on yourself for everything."

"If you're in danger, crush this token. It can save your life."

The young woman called Xue'er wore a light veil over her face and kept her eyes lowered. She was dressed in the simplest white robes of plain gauze.

"Xue'er will respectfully follow Master's teachings."

Jiang Xuefu, now known as Wang Xue, knelt before the old man and kowtowed three times in gratitude and farewell.

After she had jumped off the cliff nine years ago, her master had saved her. Fortunately, her master was a reclusive medical immortal of extraordinary skill who had forcibly pulled Jiang Xuefu back from the gates of hell.

But the wound on her face had been too deep, and with the effects of the poison, it could no longer heal completely. She would have to wear a veil whenever she went out for the rest of her life.

After her injuries healed, Jiang Xuefu changed her name to Wang Xue and formally entered the medical immortal's tutelage, becoming his second final disciple.

For nine years atop Kunlun Mountain, she had slept on brushwood and tasted gall, dreaming almost every day of the gruesome deaths of Wang Xiaolu and her parents. Now, the time had finally come for her to take her revenge and wipe away her hatred.

"Your senior brother descended the mountain two months ago. When you reach the capital, you can go to Prince Kang's Residence to find him first. Remember, apart from taking revenge, you must not harm the innocent."

"Yes."

After descending the mountain, Wang Xue planned to find her senior brother first and settle down in the capital before looking for a chance to take revenge on Jiang Xuefu.

But now she stood at the entrance to Prince Kang's Residence.

"Divine Doctor Xu? Never heard of him." Though the guard at the gate did not recognize her, he saw that she carried herself with an extraordinary air, so his tone was not as cold and hard as it would have been with an ordinary person.

Wang Xue frowned. "Divine Doctor Xu Jingwu. You haven't heard of him? He came to Prince Kang's Residence about two months ago."

"There's no one by that name here. No one came to our residence two months ago."

That was strange. If her senior brother had not come to Prince Kang's Residence, where could he have gone? Prince Kang had personally written a letter asking her master to leave the mountain and treat Prince Kang's Consort, so her master had sent her senior brother Xu Jingwu in his place.

Lost in thought, Wang Xue did not see that Xu Jingwu, the very person she had been so eager to find, was sitting in the carriage slowly passing behind her.

As the carriage passed, a token bearing the character "Fu," which represented Princess Fu'an, swayed in the cold wind, tracing a graceful arc.

"Did Fu'an say when she would return?"

An ethereal, insubstantial voice came from inside the carriage. The speaker was a man dressed all in white, with white hair and a strip of white silk tied over his eyes.

"Young Master Xu, the princess only told you to wait for her at the residence. She did not say when she would return."

The maid bowed her head respectfully at his side, not daring to look directly at the man before her.

He was the princess's male favorite. Every maid who had coveted him had her eyes gouged out and was sent to wash chamber pots.

Xu Jingwu nodded and said nothing more.

He had been abducted two months ago, just after arriving in the capital. At the time, Jiang Xuefu had not yet come of age and still lived in the palace.

To keep Xu Jingwu, she had bought a residence outside the palace especially for him, and from time to time she would leave the palace to favor him.

Today was her coming of age, and after the ceremony she would move into her princess's residence outside the palace. Naturally, Xu Jingwu had also been brought there from the house.

As for why Jiang Xuefu had taken Xu Jingwu away, there was only one reason: she had been stirred by the sight of his beauty.

Xu Jingwu had been raised on Kunlun Mountain by the medical immortal since childhood. Although he was quite gifted in medicine, no one had ever taught him about other matters, so his nature was very simple, even naive.

The man had also been born with white hair and blind eyes. Jiang Xuefu had always been surrounded by heaven's favored sons, so upon encountering this type for the first time, she was naturally very interested.

However, Jiang Xuefu had not forced him while keeping him in the residence. Whenever she visited, she merely listened to him play the zither and tell stories to pass the time.

As the sky grew dark.

Jiang Xuefu left the palace in her carriage, preparing to return to the princess's residence.

Exhausted after the long day, she leaned back in the carriage, drowsy and ready to fall asleep. Suddenly, a figure darted in through the window and shamelessly blew a breath at her.

"Ling Chengfeng... you stink! Go away!"

Jiang Xuefu wrinkled her nose in disgust and casually swiped a hand at the young man's face.

Ling Chengfeng caught her wrist and chuckled. "Xiao Fu'er, you're so unreasonable. I rushed here from the military camp without even having time to bathe, afraid I'd miss your birthday ceremony."

"I had someone deliver your present to the princess's residence. You'll see it when you get back."

Only then did the young woman, who had been feigning sleep with her eyes closed, slowly open them and finally deign to give him a proper look.

Perhaps because he had just returned from the military camp, Ling Chengfeng still wore his training armor, with a red headband across his forehead. His sword-like brows swept up toward his temples, and his eyes were long and bright. Beneath his straight nose was a spirited, unruly smile.

After two months apart, he seemed to have grown a little thinner.

"Did you miss me, Xiao Fu'er?"

"No."

Ling Chengfeng paused. The smile on his lips gradually faded a little, and his dark, bright eyes grew more serious. "But I missed you very much."

"I know this may be very forward of me to say,"

Young General Ling, who had never feared heaven or earth, suddenly hesitated, and the tips of his ears turned faintly red. "Mother said that before long, the emperor will begin arranging a marriage for you."

"If possible, could you consider me?"

He stared straight into her eyes, as though trying to read something in them.

Unfortunately, he was destined to be disappointed.