A Mirror That Longs To Return - Chapter 7

He Jingling waited quietly in the open courtyard for Lüqi to come out.

Lüqi handed the waist badge back to He Jingling and gave her a slight bow.

“Lord He, here is your waist badge.”

“Thank you, Miss.”

As He Jingling thanked her, she accepted the badge.

“I had to come back after leaving. I’ve caused you all unnecessary trouble.”

Although she knew the princess’s closest maid was named Lüqi, no one had introduced them yet, so she addressed her simply as “Miss.”

Lüqi waved her hand.

“Lord He protected Her Highness last night. Everyone in the Princess Manor is grateful to you. A small matter like this is no trouble at all.”

After saying that, she introduced herself properly.

He Jingling smiled, looking utterly innocent.

Really?

Lüqi might think so.

Certain other people clearly did not.

Just as that thought crossed her mind, He Jingling turned around and saw a tall, thin figure dressed in green.

Indeed.

Certain people definitely did not think so.

Xu Zhiyan, sporting two conspicuous dark circles beneath his eyes, let out a cold laugh the moment He Jingling stepped through the gates of the Princess Manor.

“Lord He, is this how you perform your duties as a Jinyiwei officer?”

He Jingling looked puzzled.

“What is the matter, Prince Consort?”

She glanced at the dark circles under Xu Zhiyan’s eyes.

Apparently, he hadn’t slept well last night.

“What is the matter?” Xu Zhiyan forced out a cold, stiff smile. “This is the Princess Manor, and I am the Prince Consort! His Majesty personally bestowed this marriage upon me!”

Yet you’ve still never truly entered the Princess Manor.

Although He Jingling felt considerable sympathy for him inwardly, she kept it off her face.

“I was merely concerned for Her Highness’s safety last night.”

“Then how were you allowed inside with her?”

Xu Zhiyan swallowed the second half of his complaint—

Even I, the Prince Consort, couldn’t get in.

He Jingling answered earnestly,

“That was Her Highness’s order.”

Following her was because she was worried about Yan Changjun’s safety.

Entering the manor was because Yan Changjun had ordered it.

Xu Zhiyan was speechless for quite some time, his throat dry.

Then another thought occurred to him.

“Then why did you leave this morning only to come back again?”

He looked He Jingling up and down suspiciously.

Her hair was perfectly arranged, her robes immaculate, and even the luan-patterned belt around her waist looked exactly as it had yesterday.

Naturally, he thought back to the excuse used to refuse him the previous night.

The princess had started her monthly period.

Xu Zhiyan was a learned scholar. Though his family had declined, they still came from a distinguished scholarly lineage.

How could such an unclean matter possibly be discussed so openly?

Of course, as the princess’s husband, hearing it from Lüqi—a woman—was one thing.

But allowing He Jingling to hear it was something entirely different.

He Jingling held out her left hand, revealing the gold-and-silver waist badge resting in her palm.

“My waist badge was left in Her Highness’s bedchamber. I came back to retrieve it.”

She spoke with complete sincerity, her face full of innocent confusion.

“Otherwise, I wouldn’t be able to report for duty tomorrow.”

Xu Zhiyan felt as though a fishbone were lodged in his throat.

Yet there was nothing he could do.

The badge was engraved with golden dragons and silver tigers so lifelike they seemed ready to leap from the metal.

It also bore a serial number, name, and rank.

No. 328
He Jingling
Chiliarch

How could someone remove even her official waist badge…

…and then forget it?

Just what had happened last night…?

Seeing Xu Zhiyan remain silent for so long, He Jingling simply offered him a polite bow.

“If the Prince Consort has no further business, then this humble official will take her leave.”

With that, she wrapped her fingers around the waist badge once more and walked away with calm, unhurried steps.

There was no helping it.

The battlefield of romantic rivalry was simply that ruthless.

If she didn’t wound others, they would wound her.

She had not returned home last night.

Who knew how worried her mother must have been?

He Jingling now held the official rank of fifth-rank chiliarch, and her salary was fairly generous.

Unfortunately…

Her family had an extraordinary talent for creating financial disasters.

Although He Zhenxian operated a tailor shop, its income barely balanced its expenses.

The problem was that she loved giving things away.

If anyone asked her for help, she simply couldn’t refuse.

He Jingling still remembered the third day after she had transmigrated.

The three of them had gone hungry for an entire day.

He Zhenxian had impulsively donated nearly everything they owned.

Only after running completely out of money did she leisurely begin collecting debts from the people who owed her.

She also had an unfortunate habit of picking random things up…

Even now, He Jingling thought the whole story was absurd.

Her position as a chiliarch had essentially been something her mother had picked up.

One day, while walking along a field path, He Zhenxian found a bundle.

Inside were several letters and identifying tokens.

She was still standing there in confusion when someone came looking for them.

They claimed He Jingling was a relative of the late Consort Yi.

Since His Majesty had deeply loved Consort Yi and still cherished her memory, he had decided to arrange official positions for her surviving relatives.

Not once had anyone considered the dangers of He Jingling disguising herself as a man…

…or the deadly romantic rivalry she would inevitably be dragged into.

Well.

Not inevitably anymore.

She was already in it.

He Jingling shivered as she remembered Pei Jin’s sinister gaze last night and Xu Zhiyan’s furious expression this morning.

After only a few nights of returning home late because of official assignments, He Zhenxian had naturally accepted the idea that her eldest daughter simply spent nights away from home from time to time.

As for the “Xiaolou” mentioned earlier—

She was He Jingling’s younger sister.

Truthfully, all of this was the system’s doing.

He Jingling was certain she had transmigrated physically into this world.

Yet she had also inherited an entirely complete identity here.

She had a mother above her, a younger sister below her, and even a family genealogy that could be traced in detail.

At first, He Jingling had dismissed the system’s claim that she was “fated” to belong here as complete nonsense.

But seeing how naturally both her mother and younger sister accepted her…

She gradually accepted this identity herself.

Perhaps…

She truly did have some kind of fate with this world.

“Now that you’re home, isn’t everything fine?”

He Jingling answered absentmindedly while pulling He Zhenxian into the house.

The He family lived in a modest single-courtyard residence.

It still possessed traces of former prosperity.

He Zhenxian lowered her voice, glanced around to make sure no one was listening, coughed lightly, and whispered,

“My daughter… speaking of which, where did you go last night?”

“This morning I asked around the neighborhood and heard something happened at the imperial palace… Weren’t you on duty there last night?”

She hurriedly shut the door, worry written all over her face.

“How could you run into something so unlucky? Thank heavens you’ve come back safely.”

He Jingling twitched the corner of her mouth.

“Mother, don’t I look perfectly fine? I’m standing right here without a scratch.”

He Zhenxian had already inspected her thoroughly earlier and said nothing more about it.

Instead, she asked,

“So where did you spend the night? And how is your Imperial Brother-in-Law, the Emperor?”

Every time He Jingling heard the words Imperial Brother-in-Law, they stabbed at her ears.

The reason was simple.

Her family had absolutely no blood relation whatsoever to the late Consort Yi.

The emperor had simply forced the relationship upon them, even transferring all three of them into Consort Yi’s family register.

Overnight, they had become relatives of the noble consort.

“Last night?”

He Jingling paused.

“I escorted the Eldest Princess back to her residence and spent the night there. As for His Majesty…”

Before she could continue, He Zhenxian looked utterly shocked.

She circled around He Jingling anxiously.

“Jingling, you actually spent an entire night inside that man-eating residence? Did she discover anything unusual?”

He Jingling found herself completely speechless.

She interrupted immediately.

“Mother, Her Highness discovered absolutely nothing.”

“She discovered nothing?”

He Zhenxian eyed her suspiciously.

“Then… could it be that she simply wasn’t interested in you? Doesn’t your Imperial Brother-in-Law send carriage after carriage of handsome young male favorites to her every month?”

Those beautiful young men entered the Princess Manor like stones sinking into the sea.

Not the slightest trace of them was ever heard again.

Others who entered by different means…

…went in standing upright…

…and came out lying flat.

In He Zhenxian’s mind, Princess Jialang’s residence was nothing less than a house that devoured people.

“She really didn’t discover anything.”

He Jingling emphasized once more.

After thinking seriously for a while, He Zhenxian arrived at her own conclusion.

“Then she must have realized you’re actually a woman. That’s why she was willing to let you leave.”

At last, He Jingling reached the limit of her patience.

She pulled her hand free from her mother’s grasp.

“Mother, please stop worrying.”

Following behind her younger sister, He Jingling walked around the screen and saw an open notebook lying on the desk.

Tiny, densely packed characters filled every page.

Her little sister wasn’t practicing calligraphy at all.

He Jingling swore she had never intentionally peeked.

One afternoon she had happened to walk in and accidentally caught sight of a few lines written there:

“For the sake of our little family, my only elder sister disguised herself as a man to serve in the Jinyiwei.”

“No, now that she’s already serving there, she isn’t my only elder sister anymore. We all have another big sister now. I heard her name is He Huiyi.”

He Jingling: “…”

Her little sister’s girlish thoughts really were… unique.

“What do you need from me today?”

He Jingling sat down, looking exhausted.

“Don’t tell me you’re asking me to deliver another letter.”

Xiaolou’s eyes immediately lit up.

“Exactly!”

He Jingling’s face darkened for a brief moment.

“Where is it? Give it to me.”

Yes.

Her younger sister had developed a habit of constantly writing letters.

Eventually, the smile lingering on Xiaolou’s face transformed into ink flowing across the page.

Without even looking, He Jingling already knew what she would write.

Dusk gradually deepened.

It was finally time for He Jingling to rest.

The heavens were dyed dark with ink, just like the fresh black strokes spreading across Xiaolou’s page:

For the sake of our little family, my elder sister, who disguises herself as a man to serve in the Jinyiwei, spent an entire night inside the man-eating residence of the Eldest Princess.