Chapter 17
The Crown Princess left the Library Pavilion.
She hadn’t looked at a single book. It was as if she had come here just for a chance encounter with someone.
Lu Dieqing stared blankly at the waist token in her palm.
The Crown Princess’s waist token… why would she give it to me?
Lu Dieqing felt like a little beggar who had been rolling in dust and poverty for years and was suddenly given a fortune. The fortune was so immense, a banknote of such a suffocatingly large denomination that it needed to be exchanged at a bank.
But she didn’t dare.
If it were just a bit of mercy from a superior, or a few taels of silver as a reward, she would have dared to accept it. But something that far exceeded those things, like immense wealth or this token in her hand…
She was at a complete loss.
Lu Dieqing pressed her lips together, her mind filled with questions.
Why would the Crown Princess give me her waist token?
She couldn’t figure it out, and she hadn’t thought to ask the Crown Princess at the time. It felt like she had been handed a hot potato. She didn’t know what to do, feeling dazed, confused, and uneasy.
When leaving the Library Pavilion, Lu Dieqing didn’t take the back door; she went through the main entrance.
The moment A’Sang saw her, she stifled a scream that was about to escape, her face turning red as she gasped in a low voice.
“You-you-you… did you run into the Crown Princess?”
Before Lu Dieqing had entered the library, she had warned her that the Crown Princess had been there recently. But she never expected that the Crown Princess would actually come! In the past, the library might not see her even a few times a year. Yet these past few days, it had been one thing after another involving the Crown Princess.
Seeing A’Sang so frightened and agitated, Lu Dieqing’s own heart began to pound with delayed fear.
“I ran into her,” she didn’t deny it.
A’Sang immediately made a fainting expression, her eyes wide.
“Were you quick-witted and hid in time? No, no, you said you ran into her. Did she not punish you?”
A’Sang couldn’t figure it out. When the Crown Princess had walked towards the third floor earlier, her heart had been in her throat, a little drum pounding away. She had been filled with anxiety, covered in a cold sweat, yet she hadn’t dared to follow and ask, afraid it would be a dead giveaway and expose both herself and Lu Dieqing.
Seeing her more anxious than herself, the panic and unease in Lu Dieqing’s heart dissipated a little.
“Perhaps Her Highness was in a good mood today, so she let me go.”
Her tone was uncertain. The waist token was already carefully tucked away in her bosom. Through the layers of cloth, her ribs could feel a spot where something was pressing against her—the edge of the token. It felt heavier than gold, and it grew hotter in her bosom.
Lu Dieqing had a vague feeling that she couldn’t tell anyone that the Crown Princess had given her the waist token. Before she had even figured it out, she had already begun to instinctively guard this secret.
After moving past the topic with A’Sang, she hurried back to her corner of the side-palace.
In truth, the hostages didn’t need to do anything special to maintain their daily food and drink. The Chaoying Kingdom was not stingy. Since they had taken hostages, they also provided them with all the necessary rice, flour, and clothing. But the things distributed from above would always pass through layers of servants’ hands, each taking a cut. If they encountered someone like Matron Li, there would be little left.
“Well, well, if it isn’t the Princess of Shan. Why are you in such a hurry?”
The ground of the Chaoying Kingdom seemed to have a strange power. The moment she thought of Matron Li, she suddenly heard Matron Li’s voice.
Lu Dieqing jumped, like a little rabbit whose escape route had been blocked. She froze on the spot, looking at Matron Li with vigilance and unease.
Several palace maids followed behind Matron Li. It seemed they had been standing there, waiting for Lu Dieqing for a long time.
And indeed they had. The last time Matron Li had wanted to put this Princess of Shan in her place, she had been scared off by the Crown Princess passing by before she could even strip off her clothes. After all, if the matter blew up and the Crown Princess saw it, she wouldn’t get off easy. But after that day, she had waited for many days without seeing the Princess of Shan. It was clear the girl had learned her lesson and was avoiding her.
Matron Li was furious, feeling more and more that everyone from the Shan Kingdom deserved to die. This Princess of Shan looked young, just a slip of a girl, but she was quite cunning, knowing to take detours, as slippery as an eel, making it impossible to catch her.
After waiting for several days without seeing Lu Dieqing, and with the recent snow making her almost catch a cold on her way back, Matron Li’s hatred for Lu Dieqing grew even more.
But she only dared to bully the naive little girl when she caught her alone. If she were to go directly to Lu Dieqing’s home and bully the family of three in front of Lu He, Matron Li, old and crafty as she was, didn’t have the guts. After all, a starved camel is still bigger than a horse. Lu He was a bona fide princess of the Shan Kingdom. If things really came to a head and something happened, her old life would be forfeit. She understood this principle well—even a cornered rabbit will bite. So she vented all her anger on Lu Dieqing, the easiest to handle of the three.
Matron Li only wanted to torment the girl, not get herself into any trouble—a classic case of picking on the weak.
She gave a look to the servants beside her, and they all understood. Without a word, they immediately surrounded Lu Dieqing.
“You…”
Her escape route blocked, Lu Dieqing was filled with terror. She remembered the nightmare from last time, and her face paled.
“Little Princess, who told you to be born in the wrong place, not as one of our Chaoying people,” one of the maids sneered at Lu Dieqing.
In her terror, Lu Dieqing could no longer care about anything else. With a trembling hand, she took out the waist token from her bosom.
“All of you, get away!”
Her voice trembled, her eyes shimmering with tears. One hand tightly gripped the gold-plated waist token as if it were her only lifeline.
This was truly the first time in her life Lu Dieqing had learned to borrow the tiger’s might. But at this moment, she had no time for self-reproach or shame, only nervousness.
Matron Li had been contemptuous of Lu Dieqing’s reaction, but when she saw the waist token in her hand, she trembled. The flesh on her face quivered, and she fell to her knees.
—This was a waist token that only a prince or princess would have!
When did this little wench get to know one of those Highnesses?
Not being close enough, Matron Li couldn’t see the specific character on the token, so she didn’t know who it belonged to. But it could only be one of a few Highnesses, any of whom could easily crush her.
Matron Li’s face turned pale and then green. She roared at the other maids who were still standing there in a daze, “What are you waiting for? Kneel!”
A waist token was a symbol of status. If someone appeared with a token, it was as if one of those Highnesses were standing there in person. Matron Li was old, after all. She had seen a lot and reacted quickly. If it got out that they had seen the token and shown no respect, no one present today would have a good end.
Adapting to the wind was a servant’s instinct in the palace. The other maids, seeing Matron Li’s reaction, also immediately realized that the token in Lu Dieqing’s hand must have an extraordinary origin.
Shuala.
Matron Li and the other maids all knelt on the ground.
Lu Dieqing was the only one left standing.
She was dazed for a moment, her hand holding the golden token trembling. Her gaze was also lost for a moment before it fell back on the token, as if looking at a strange object.
In the past, she had been one of those who knelt in the crowd, avoiding the imperial scions of the Chaoying Kingdom. But now, the positions were reversed.
But she knew in her heart that these people were not kneeling to her, but to the token, and to the power behind the token. And all that power came from the Crown Princess.
Lu Dieqing walked back in a daze, the token clutched in her palm, like a drowning person holding onto their last lifeline.
When Lu He saw her daughter return, she looked somewhat lost, and couldn’t help but worry.
“Where did you go, child? Why do you look like this?”
Lu Dieqing forced a smile. Seeing the few strands of white hair in her mother’s hair, she felt a little guilty and dared not tell her what had happened today, for fear of worrying her.
“Mother, today I saw… a palace maid with a princess’s waist token, and everyone knelt to her.”
She carefully probed, “Is that waist token so powerful?”
Hearing this, Lu He thought her daughter was just curious and patiently explained.
“Members of the royal family often have things they can’t do themselves, but the people below are not always obedient. At such times, the waist token becomes a command arrow. With it, it’s as if the person themselves is present, and things get done smoothly.”
Lu Dieqing nodded, half-understanding.
“But Mother… what kind of things would require those princes and princesses to give out their personal waist tokens?”
Lu He was silent for a moment. Being asked this question, she couldn’t help but think of the past.
—She, too, had once been a high and mighty princess of the Shan Kingdom. Even the most unremarkable princess was still above tens of thousands of people. Her noble birth had made her believe that everyone around her was a good person.
She sighed. “A waist token is either given to a trusted subordinate for an important matter, or… it’s used as a protective talisman.”
Lu Dieqing noticed the expression on her mother’s face and suddenly realized she had touched upon her mother’s painful past. She shouldn’t have asked those questions.
Just a protective talisman?
Could it be that the Crown Princess gave me the token because she wanted to make my life easier?
Lu Dieqing regretted bringing up her mother’s painful memories, while Lu He also blamed herself for becoming a hostage. Otherwise, if she had stayed in the Shan Kingdom, her daughter would have lived a life of wealth and luxury.
She had already started making arrangements these past few days, sending people to contact the Shan royal family. She believed that in a while, she would receive a reply.
Lu Dieqing had no idea that her mother was secretly paving the way for her to leave the Chaoying Kingdom.
When she returned to her room, she thought of her little doll and quickly picked it up to look at it.
Every grain on the wooden doll had been carved by Lu Dieqing herself. She had caressed it many times and was incredibly familiar with it.
“Xinxin, I met the Crown Princess at the Library Pavilion today. She asked me some questions about puppeteers and then gave me this waist token.”
After she finished speaking, the room was silent. The wooden doll gave no response.
Lu Dieqing’s eyes dimmed.
But soon, the little girl remembered her conversation with the Crown Princess in the Library Pavilion, and a thought emerged in her mind.
Even the Crown Princess believes in the tradition of puppeteers. I can’t give up!
I will continue to awaken its spirit. If once isn’t enough, I’ll do it twice. If twice isn’t enough, I’ll do it three times.
Putting her thoughts into action, Lu Dieqing found the incense sticks in her makeup box and tried to perform the spiritual awakening again.
