Chapter 39: The Water Theft (2) Part 3

So, on that day, Li Wangxin had carried it up to the top of the palace wall. Bathed in the brilliant sunset, she had pointed into the distance for it.

If you eat obediently and cooperate with the medicine for your wounds, once you’re fully healed, I will send someone to take you home. Alright?

The snow wolf had stared out at the vast, boundless world stretching below the wall. It took two steps forward. And then, it opened its mouth and gently, gently bit the sleeve of her robe.

From that day on, the wolf’s body had gradually begun to improve.

Li Wangxin wasn’t a competent Crown Prince. At least, she wasn’t particularly diligent in learning to govern a nation.

For instance, she loved reading books and singing operas, writing little play scripts, crafting toys, designing theatrical costumes, and such.

For someone in her position, these hobbies were naturally classified as neglecting her proper duties. So she could only carefully pack them into boxes, hide them under her bed, and occasionally take them out to play.

The vast majority of her time, she faced heavy coursework, stern tutors, and a cold-blooded Imperial Father. Only at night did she have any time to herself.

By that point, she was usually utterly exhausted. She would sit on the three-tiered steps in the center of the palace and ramble endlessly to the snow wolf, talking about this and that.

Often, when she just couldn’t stop, the wolf would get annoyed and turn its head away, ignoring her. But a huge, fluffy tail would always extend from the cage and sweep across the back of her hand.

Time passed slowly. The snow wolf gradually healed. The time came to fulfill the promise.

Li Wangxin had given the guards prior notice not to stop it anymore. Then, she had opened the cage and watched the snow wolf walk outside, step by step.

At that time, she had been almost entirely alone. Aside from Shu Yizhong, who had grown up with her, there was no one she could speak to. Watching the snow wolf leave, the ache in her heart had been unbearable. She had followed after it.

But in the end, she had become lost within the Imperial Palace.

She had walked for a very long time. No matter where she went, it seemed these towering palace walls were there.

Could it be that this was a heavy lock she could never open? Her destiny that she could never flee?

The sun had dripped a crimson red, congealing into these insurmountable walls, which pressed down, making it impossible for her to breathe.

That day, with audacious courage, she had skipped her lessons. She had wandered around the palace for an entire day before returning.

When she drew near her own palace quarters, she had smelled the thick, coppery scent of blood. It was very similar to the scent she’d once smelled when her Imperial Father had forced her to attend a beheading at the execution grounds.

Her legs trembling, she had entered the hall. She had seen the floor awash in rivers of blood. Her Imperial Father’s eyes had been cold as ice.

Weak in nature, unable to make decisions, sneaking out in broad daylight to wander around—these people have taught you in vain! Useless.

In the past, her Imperial Father had often punished her or those around her. But it had never been to this degree.

Throwing down his sword, her Imperial Father had said: From this day forward, you are no longer permitted such willfulness.

Li Wangxin had looked at the bodies of her tutors and several servant girls on the ground. Tears had threatened to fall.

Her Imperial Father had added: Nor are you allowed to be so weak.

She had bitten her lip and choked back the tears.

After her Imperial Father left, she had sat on the edge of her bed, watching the attendants dispose of the bodies strewn across the floor. She had watched the blood-soaked palace hall be cleaned until it was spotless. Her eyes had been numb with terror. She had sat there in a daze until deep into the night.

It was then. The soft sound of footsteps had approached.

The snow wolf had returned. Held in its mouth was a toy Li Wangxin had complained about losing days ago.

The palace still held the remnants of the stench of blood. The snow wolf’s sense of smell was keen. It had rushed over immediately to sniff the Crown Prince, checking if she herself was injured.

Perhaps it was the recovery of something lost. Perhaps it was the permanent loss of something else. Li Wangxin had held that snow wolf and wept until her heart shattered and her guts twisted.

I can’t practice swordplay. I can’t govern the country. I can’t be a good Crown Prince. I can’t even be a good son.

At the end of her weeping, she had murmured in a daze: But I was never a son in the first place.

What a shame. For the sake of her family, she had to continue being a son. For the sake of the nation, she also had to continue being the Crown Prince.

It was as if she finally understood these things.

After that, Li Wangxin seemed to become a different person.

She completely put away all those topics and hobbies she had once loved and studied with devotion. She never dared entertain those thoughts again. Every day, she diligently completed her coursework and delved deep into those statecraft tomes which had once caused her such agony.

She profoundly understood that her life was now intrinsically linked to the lives of many. She became more outstanding, more mature. What hung on her lips was no longer complaints, but genuine thoughts and insights concerning the common people and the state of the realm.

She worked hard at many things. She could argue with ministers over tax policies that affected the common people. She could risk her life to find evidence to clear the names of loyal, upright officials who had been slandered. Even when the faction opposing the Crown Prince targeted her at every turn, she stood her ground.

Wherever she went, whatever she did, the snow wolf followed. Once, an official had remarked: In this entire palace, the Crown Prince is the only person who can subdue this brute without an iron cage.

Li Wangxin had heard him. She had gently stroked the snow wolf’s ears and said: This is my friend. Not a brute.

The official had merely laughed awkwardly and said nothing more.

Within the court, she strove to do everything to the best of her ability, guided by the measuring ruler within her own heart. But it was only later that she understood: that kind of ruler wasn’t held in everyone’s heart.

Shu Yizhong told her: Only doing practical work is useless. You must also know how to make your accomplishments known. Otherwise, the power of speech rests in the hands of others. If they say you are black, then you are black, and you won’t be able to wash it clean.

Li Wangxin didn’t know how to publicize her own deeds. She had always felt that as long as the good things she did were effective, that was enough.

Thus, when she discovered her reputation among the common people wasn’t good, she didn’t care. She merely said: If they have the free time to discuss the palace’s affairs, it means they are no longer worrying about food and clothing. That’s good.

Shu Yizhong had desperately wanted to crack open her skull and see what was inside. In the end, he could only sigh at the snow wolf.

Layer upon layer of palace walls. The complex hearts of men, layer upon layer. None of them are easy to scale.

Your master takes on tasks that offend people, but she just doesn’t understand this one principle. What do you say we do?

What to do? The snow wolf didn’t know.

The snow wolf only knew that this place was different from the endless, sweeping snowfields. Many things here could block the wind, yet it felt even colder than those frozen plains.

Sometimes going on inspection tours, sometimes reading political documents by lamplight. They kept each other company like this for many, many years.

That day… it had seemed like just an ordinary day. The snow wolf had accompanied Li Wangxin on an incognito inspection tour as usual.

This time, it was a small city. Everything had seemed peaceful and calm on the surface. But the moment they set foot on that land, people began to collapse in succession, vomiting, breaking out in rashes, even running high fevers.

The City Lord had said this was likely a sudden outbreak of the plague. He had immediately ordered the entire city sealed off to prevent the disease from spreading.

The Crown Prince had revealed her identity, declaring she would stand with the local people through thick and thin. At the same time, she had written a letter to the Imperial Palace, begging them to dispatch imperial physicians who specialized in plague response. Then, she had personally gone to tend to the people stricken by the sickness.

The letter she sent received no response. She exhausted every method at her disposal, but she could not stop batches of commoners from dying.

The City Lord had said all these corpses would likely need to be burned entirely. Otherwise, the plague would continue to spread. But this was something ordinary people would find difficult to accept – it required the Crown Prince to step forward and announce it.

For the greater good, Li Wangxin had agreed. After consoling the families of the deceased, she had the bodies piled together and burned completely.

The plague in the city grew more and more severe. She continued to rush about on the front lines. But one day, she suddenly realized that the people in the city seemed to be growing afraid of her.

She had found it very strange but had been too busy to investigate. She had continued researching the source of the plague and methods of treatment.

Overwrought with anxiety, unable to rest properly day after day, watching the number of corpses being burned grow higher and higher, she had made a decision. She would risk returning to the Imperial City herself to force her Imperial Father, who never replied to her letters, to pay attention.

Without rest day or night, she had rushed all the way to the capital. Before the news of the city’s plague had even been reported, accusations that she had violently massacred the common people were already piled high on the Emperor’s desk.

Immersed in treating the city’s sick, Li Wangxin had no idea when she had supposedly committed such atrocities. When they said her nature was cruel and brutal, and those pieces of evidence were so vivid and clear… she had trembled with fury but had not known how to refute it.

Unexpectedly, her Imperial Father had not been very angry. He had even seemed… gratified. This son of his, who from childhood had been weak and cowardly, unable to even lift a blade, could actually have a side that resembled him.

So, in the end, she was merely punished with house arrest in her own palace quarters.

As for the plague outbreak in the small city she’d spoken of… her Imperial Father had sent people to investigate. The answer they brought back was a denial.

No. There has never been a plague in our city. On the contrary, it was His Highness the Crown Prince, claiming he had pent-up frustrations, who came here to vent his anger by killing people. To avoid being discovered, he burned all the bodies completely.