Chapter 2
THE PAIN FROM THE PINCH traveled from his palm to his central nervous system and instantly cleared his mind. Unfortunately, the scene in front of him didn’t change in the slightest.
Rather, his gaze seemed to deepen and grow even colder for a moment due to the pain, causing the eunuch to quiver in fear.
It appeared to be true: He had become someone from the past.
That person was presumably a member of the nobility, from the final years of the Jing dynasty. As for the rest… He didn’t have the faintest idea.
Well, he knew one more thing: This person was taking in a concubine today. Or rather, he was about to take in a concubine, because that person was now him.
And that was all the information that he had. Meanwhile, the eunuch stood in front of him, slightly bowed forward. A huge smile stretched across his face as he waited for Jiang Suizhou to set off for the bridal chamber.
What in the world was going on?!
Jiang Suizhou felt like his head was going to explode. He silently endured his turbulent thoughts, his face frozen and blank.
The eunuch’s smile grew a bit strained. Clearly anxious at the delay, he lowered his voice, pivoting to earnest, well-meaning persuasion and consolation.
“Your Highness, your servant knows the depth of your unwillingness,” he coaxed in a hushed voice. “Even so, this edict is from His Majesty himself. As much as you dislike it, you merely have to go through the motions, that’s all! Allegedly, the madam has already been incapacitated and deprived of the ability to perform martial arts. There is no danger at all, so you needn’t worry.”
An odd expression flitted across Jiang Suizhou’s face. Did he just say she’d been incapacitated and made unable to fight?
He didn’t expect there to be a forced-marriage plotline.
As far as he was aware, the imperial court had been riddled with corruption in the final years of the Jing dynasty, and the emperors had all been naive fools. The last ruler of the Jing dynasty, Emperor You, was particularly incompetent. According to the historical records, he was a notorious womanizer and his self-indulgent behavior made a joke of court affairs and politics. On top of that, he heavily favored his consort kin—most notably his maternal uncle Pang Shao, whom he permitted to wreak havoc.
It just so happened that the Jing dynasty did not exactly have an abundance of heirs. By the time it reached Emperor You’s generation, almost all of the other imperial princes had died young. The only one left was the Prince of Jing, who would also soon meet an early demise due to sickness.
Precisely because of this, the Liang dynasty was able to rise like the sun and conquer the state of Jing only a few years after the court fled south.
Jiang Suizhou reached the conclusion that, judging from the circumstances, he’d somehow become a part of this chaotic, depraved imperial court in its death throes.
It was a bitter realization. What kind of terrible deed had he committed to incur the heavens’ wrath like this? To be inexplicably ripped from his comfortable life as a cog in the machine and made to play the part of a nobleman from a dynasty on its last breath?
Was it just because he had been a little too harsh on the student earlier?
Impossible.
At that moment, someone called from outside the room.
“Qianshan-gonggong,4 the bridal sedan has already arrived at Yincui Pavilion!” the maidservant said.
“What’s the rush?” the eunuch answered loudly, gritting his teeth.
The maidservant promptly clammed up.
Swiveling his head back around, the eunuch looked at Jiang Suizhou with earnest, pleading eyes.
Jiang Suizhou knew that he had no choice but to play along at this point. He was inevitably going to have to face the issue of the bridal chamber. Whether he chose to go or not, he’d end up in hot water either way. However, since the bride-to-be wasn’t here of her own volition and had even been incapacitated as a result, he felt reasonably confident he’d be able to muddle through the wedding night without much trouble.
Everything else would have to wait until after he struggled through this initial ordeal. Then he could slowly figure out the specifics of his identity and situation and proceed from there.
He made a faint noise of agreement and stood.
The eunuch’s eyes lit up, and he quickly reached forward to lend him a hand.
For some reason Jiang Suizhou felt rather weak and dizzy when he stood. Perhaps he was just imagining things, or maybe his spinning thoughts were disorienting him more than he realized. He had no choice but to rely on the eunuch for support as he stepped down from the platform, though he wasn’t used to being waited upon like this.
As he walked, he noticed a full-length bronze mirror nearby. Subtly, he shifted his gaze ever so slightly to catch a glimpse of himself in the reflection.
Unexpectedly, he looked almost exactly as he had in his original body. The only difference was that he seemed to be a couple of years younger; no older than twenty-four or twenty-five.
His students used to say he was handsome, but they always teased that he was good-looking in a villainess way. Jiang Suizhou never agreed with them, but he had to admit he was starting to get the same impression as he gazed at the person in the mirror.
Indeed, he didn’t look like a “good person.”
His beauty had always been icy, which lent him an air of callousness. The long hair and sweeping sleeves made him seem all the more delicate and aloof. His eyes were piercing, with small irises that revealed just a little too much of the white beneath. A single impassive glance from him was enough to make anyone’s stomach drop.
Jiang Suizhou withdrew his gaze, but one last thing caught his eye as he looked away—a dot of vermilion on his left eyelid near the upper outside corner.
He didn’t have a mole like that. At least not on his original body.
But before he could examine it more carefully, the eunuch led him past the mirror and out of the room, still supporting him.
Another servant waited in the outer room, prepared with a thin cloak. When Jiang Suizhou drew near, the servant wrapped the cloak around him in one adept movement.
Puzzled, Jiang Suizhou furrowed his brow.
He was already dressed much warmer than everyone else around him. It seemed a bit much to add another layer on top of that.
The eunuch next to him keenly detected the shift in his expression, and he swiftly pacified him.
“The wind is stronger at night. It may be too much for Your Highness, so it’s best to wear a little more.”
Your Highness?
Before Jiang Suizhou could gather his thoughts, he was guided down the steps and toward the palanquin waiting in front of the courtyard.
The wind should have been warm, but it felt cool on his skin. The feeling was quite unlike being forced outside with a cold. He felt an innate deficiency within himself: the indescribable exhaustion caused by a weak immune system.
This new discovery, in connection with the title that the eunuch had just addressed him by, caused an ominous premonition to darken Jiang Suizhou’s thoughts.
The person he had become was a feeble, chronically ill individual who lived at the end of the Jing dynasty and could be referred to as “Your Highness.” He could only think of one candidate.
It had to be none other than His Highness, the Prince of Jing, whose full name had been blotted from the annals of history. The same Prince of Jing who suffered from a congenital abnormality and who ultimately died prematurely.
Servants swiftly helped Jiang Suizhou into the palanquin. As it was lifted into the air, he felt a bit lightheaded.
If history were to run its course, that meant he would soon fall ill and die. He likely had about three to five years left to live.
Even if he somehow didn’t die from sickness, Northern Liang would conquer Southern Jing soon after, and they certainly wouldn’t hesitate to eliminate the dregs of the previous dynasty.
Jiang Suizhou stared ahead of him in a daze, slowly sinking back into his seat.
Unsurprisingly, he wasn’t delighted to discover that he had but a few years left to live. Would anyone be?
Collecting himself, he inclined his head and glanced at the eunuch keeping pace with the palanquin. He decided that he would attempt to confirm his suspicions with him.
What had that servant called him earlier?
“Qianshan,” he said.
The eunuch’s head jerked up in astonishment when he heard the name leave Jiang Suizhou’s mouth, and he looked over at him blankly.
Jiang Suizhou’s heart skipped a beat. Had he misspoken?
This could be bad. The eunuch would likely have a razor-sharp mind and wit to match, waiting upon nobility as closely as he did.
Before Jiang Suizhou could fully spiral into worry, the eunuch’s face brightened, his lips pulling into a flattered and delighted smile. He looked overjoyed to the point of bewilderment.
“Your Highness, your humble servant is at your service!” With his shining eyes, he was the picture of a puppy wriggling in excitement, tail wagging furiously. “P-perhaps you should just call me by my full name, Meng Qianshan, as you did before…”
Jiang Suizhou went silent.
All right, maybe he was overthinking things. This particular personal attendant didn’t seem to be too astute.
Jiang Suizhou calmly looked away and made a noise of acknowledgment.
“When did the bridal sedan arrive at the Prince of Jing’s residence?” he asked.
Meng Qianshan didn’t notice the probing nature of his question at all. He wholeheartedly believed that His Highness was simply concerned about missing the window of auspiciousness, and he answered without holding anything back.
“Rest assured, Your Highness, Madam Huo has also just arrived. Now is the ideal time for you to head over.”
When he didn’t say anything to correct the “Prince of Jing’s residence,” Jiang Suizhou’s suspicions were confirmed.
So he really had become that doomed, short-lived prince who barely showed up in the history books.
But…Madam Huo?
He frowned.
This soon-to-be concubine was surnamed Huo?
He couldn’t help but recall the content of that student’s thesis. It was complete and utter nonsense, and yet this soon-to-be concubine shared so many similarities with that depiction of General Huo. Maimed legs, married into the Prince of Jing’s household, and now the surname Huo…
Jiang Suizhou briskly banished that idea.
What was he thinking? Even the trashiest made-for-television drama wouldn’t dare to depict that tall tale. It was clearly fabricated in the name of sensationalism; there was absolutely no way that it was true.