Warming Up

A flicker finally stirred in those hollow eyes.

It was neither gratitude nor hope, but the humiliation and anger of being treated so disrespectfully by a servant.

"Get out!"

She summoned all her strength to scream the word.

Chen Fan acted as though he hadn't heard.

He didn't even look at her again. He simply went on, "Your Highness, you were born a precious branch of the imperial tree, so you might not know. When you've gone hungry long enough, your stomach burns like hot coals. When that happens, forget killing yourself-you'll be rolling on the floor in pain, with no dignity left at all."

He paused and held the steamed bun a little closer.

"Even if you want to die, don't become a starved ghost. If word gets out that the Prince of Xiushan's Residence couldn't even spare a condemned prisoner her last meal, won't people laugh?"

Not a word he said was comforting. Every sentence struck at the harshest reality.

The hand in which Li Rong'er held the porcelain shard trembled slightly.

She stared fixedly at the unfamiliar guard before her.

He hadn't urged her to think of the young prince, or fed her those tired platitudes about living on.

He had simply said that hunger hurt.

And that even in death, she should retain her dignity.

How absurd, and yet how... real.

Seeing that she didn't move, Chen Fan didn't press her. He simply set the bun on a reasonably clean patch of the bed's edge beside her.

"The prince ordered us to keep an eye on you. Whether you live or die has nothing to do with servants like us, really. All we stand to lose is our heads."

"But it's different for you."

Chen Fan finally raised his head and looked straight into her deathly eyes.

"What other people think or say is their business. You know better than anyone whether you're innocent."

"Is it worth taking your own life over what other people think?"

His words were as flat and plain as water.

Yet they struck Li Rong'er's heart like a heavy hammer.

That's right.

I'm innocent.

Why should I die because of those people's slander, because of that man's coldness?

Why should I?!

A flame of unwillingness struggled to rise from the depths of her deathly still heart.

A faint glimmer rekindled in her hollow eyes.

Just then.

"Rumble... rumble..."

A startlingly clear, ill-timed gurgle rang out in the quiet room.

It came from the princess consort's stomach.

The air froze in an instant.

The stubbornness and unwillingness on Li Rong'er's face were instantly replaced by a rising flush.

It was utter embarrassment and anger.

She glared at Chen Fan as though she meant to slice him into a thousand pieces with her eyes.

"Get out!"

She snatched up the pillow beside her and hurled it at Chen Fan's face with all her strength.

Chen Fan stepped aside. The pillow hit the doorframe and fell limply to the floor.

Without another word, he bowed slightly to the princess consort, then turned and left the room, pulling the door shut behind him.

"Crash!"

The moment the door closed, the sound of porcelain being smashed came from inside.

In the courtyard, the matron in charge, Zhang Cheng, and the others immediately gathered around him.

"How did it go? Lin Shou, the princess consort..."

The matron was so nervous she could barely get the words out.

Chen Fan shook his head, his face expressionless.

"I don't know."

He spread his hands. "I said everything I could. The rest is up to the princess consort."

The others' hearts sank halfway to the bottom at his words.

It's over.

Even sending in a new face didn't work.

The princess consort is determined to die.

The matron slapped her thigh in anxiety, while Zhang Cheng wore a troubled look and sighed again and again.

This assignment was truly going to cost them their lives.

Chen Fan paid no attention to their reactions. He walked straight back to his original post and stood ramrod straight, as though nothing had happened.

Time passed, bit by bit.

The room upstairs was deathly silent.

The servants in the courtyard sat as though on pins and needles, each day dragging on like a year.

Just as everyone thought the princess consort might have quietly ended her life inside, a maid responsible for tidying up plucked up her courage and pushed open the door.

A moment later.

The maid rushed out as though she had seen a ghost, her face alight with incredulous joy.

"She ate it! She ate it!"

"The princess consort... the princess consort ate the bun!"

The entire courtyard fell silent for a moment, then erupted in cheers.

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief. A few of the more timid maids even wept for joy.

The matron was so moved that she pressed her palms together and repeatedly chanted, "Amitabha."

Every gaze turned, as if by agreement, toward the guard standing motionless beneath the covered walkway.

They were full of admiration and curiosity.

Zhang Cheng sidled up to Chen Fan and nudged him with his elbow.

"Not bad, Lin Shou! A true master keeps his skills hidden!"

He lowered his voice and asked curiously, "What exactly did you say to the princess consort? How did you work such magic?"

Chen Fan glanced at him, looking as unruffled as ever.

"Nothing much. I just urged her to eat properly."

Zhang Cheng looked unconvinced, but seeing that Chen Fan didn't want to say more, he had to drop it.

From that day on, the task of bringing the princess consort her meals fell entirely to Chen Fan.

The matron thought he was a lucky star who could talk the princess consort around.

Chen Fan was happy to have an easy assignment. Each day, he carried the food box inside, set down the meal, and came back out without another word.

Li Rong'er no longer tried to kill herself, either.

She simply ate in silence, stared blankly in silence, and gazed out the window in silence.

A strange understanding formed between the two of them.

One delivered the food, the other ate it, and they exchanged no words throughout.

In the blink of an eye, several days passed.

That day, Chen Fan walked into the room with the food box as usual.

He set the dishes on the table one by one and was about to turn and leave.

"Wait."

A hoarse voice, silent for a long time, came from behind him.

Chen Fan stopped and turned around.

Li Rong'er sat before her dressing table. Having eaten regularly these past few days, she had regained a little color and was no longer frighteningly pale.

Through the bronze mirror, she watched the figure of the guard behind her.

"You..."

She seemed to find it difficult to speak. After a long pause, she finally asked the question that had occupied her heart for days.

"Do you believe I'm innocent?"

Even she found it ridiculous to ask.

She was asking a servant she had never met before, seeking his trust.

How lowly, how pitiful.

Chen Fan looked at the anxious, hopeful eyes in the bronze mirror and nodded without the slightest hesitation.

Because he was the "Black Wind Baleful Intent."

He knew better than anyone that nothing had happened that night.

"I believe you."

His answer was simple and decisive, without a trace of hesitation.

Li Rong'er's body trembled violently.

She slowly turned around and looked at Chen Fan in disbelief.

It was neither a perfunctory answer nor sympathy.

On the guard's utterly ordinary face was a calm that took her innocence for granted.

As though believing her were the most natural thing in the world.

In an instant, all her grievances, all her despair, and all her unwillingness turned into a scalding torrent that swept away her last defense.

Two streams of clear tears, without warning, broke through the dikes and poured from her eyes.