Chapter 3: 003 Conferred as a Princess

This reaction greatly exceeded the Crown Prince's expectations. He stared intently at Xiao Zhiyan, and after a long silence, he coldly tossed out a sentence: "Someone will naturally come to take you to Lingran Palace in a while. Let's go." The two women who referred to themselves as "your servant" each shot Xiao Zhiyan a glare before walking out behind the Crown Prince with graceful, swaying steps.

Xiao Zhiyan stood up and looked around. There was no luxury of a palace; there were only dilapidated furniture and decorations, and the walls were covered in a thick layer of dust. This must be the legendary Cold Palace, right? Other concubines in the Cold Palace had devoted and loyal little maids, so why was she so miserable? She truly didn't know how the original Xiao Zhiyan had lived.

Xiao Zhiyan walked into the inner room and saw a small, thin girl tied to a pillar. A handkerchief was stuffed in her mouth, and her face was covered in tears, but the moment she saw Xiao Zhiyan walk in, her eyes radiated a light of pleasant surprise.

Xiao Zhiyan frowned and immediately removed the handkerchief from the little girl's mouth. As soon as the cloth left her mouth, the girl sobbed, "Princess! It's so good that you're still alive! Princess..."

Xiao Zhiyan untied the little girl's ropes. She could roughly guess that this little girl was likely her maid, who had been tied up here by those two hateful women just so they could torment her to their heart's content. The little girl suddenly threw herself onto Xiao Zhiyan. "Princess, are you injured anywhere? Princess, what did they do to you?!"

Looking at the scars on the little girl's body, Xiao Zhiyan realized that this child must have suffered immensely following her. Yet, at this moment, she ignored her own injuries to worry about her mistress; it seemed this little girl was a trustworthy person.

"I am fine. Quickly, bandage your wounds," Xiao Zhiyan said gently to the girl.

"Jingman... Jingman is so useless! I could only watch helplessly as they bullied the Princess!" the girl cried sorrowfully. "Jingman has truly failed the trust of Consort Ling; I deserve death a thousand times over..."

From Jingman's mouth, Xiao Zhiyan finally managed to extract some valuable information. It turned out that this world originally had four nations and five cities. The most powerful were the Feng Kingdom, the Han Kingdom, and the Ling Kingdom, which had been destroyed by the Feng Kingdom. The five cities remained bystanders because they did not participate in the world's conflicts, forming an alliance to prevent invasion by the three nations. The Ling King, Xiao Hong, was muddled and incompetent, leaving the common people to live in misery; thus, the Feng Kingdom took the opportunity to launch a military expedition and destroyed the Ling Kingdom more than ten years ago. However, during that war, the Feng King, Huangfu Jun, who personally led the campaign, fell in love at first sight with the Ling King's sister, the Ling Princess, Xiao Wanyue. He brought her back to the Feng Kingdom and enfeoffed her as Consort Ling. At that time, Xiao Zhiyan was merely an infant, but as the sole descendant of the Ling royal family, Consort Ling pleaded with the Emperor to let her keep the child. The deeply infatuated Feng King, Huangfu Jun, permitted Consort Ling to bring her back to the Feng Kingdom and raise her with care. Since they had no children of their own, Consort Ling had always treated Xiao Zhiyan as her own.

Because she had liked the Crown Prince since childhood and was born beautiful, the Emperor had also promised Consort Ling that once Xiao Zhiyan reached her coming-of-age ceremony, she would be married to the Crown Prince. But a year ago, Consort Ling suddenly died of illness. The original Xiao Zhiyan lost her protective umbrella in Consort Ling and was framed by the Crown Prince's side consorts and thrown into the Cold Palace, and those side consorts spent their days finding joy in bullying her.

Xiao Zhiyan gained a general understanding of these circumstances. Consort Ling had once advocated for her to be given to the Crown Prince, Huangfu Lanxi, which proved that the fall of the nation had not left any psychological shadow in the heart of the Xiao Zhiyan who was raised by Consort Ling. And judging from Huangfu Lanxi's attitude today, his feelings for Xiao Zhiyan were also unclear; it was hard to say whether it was hate or mockery, but the only thing that could be certain was that there was absolutely no love.

Jingman changed Xiao Zhiyan's soaked clothes. Exhausted, Xiao Zhiyan lay on the bed and closed her eyes to rest. Too much had happened in this one day; she had transmigrated four times alone... dying so many times in a single day was truly taxing. Fortunately, this seemed to be a fictional era; no matter what method she had to use, she must live well!

About an hour later, the imperial decree indeed arrived. A eunuch announced in a shrill, piercing voice: "By the grace of Heaven, the Emperor decrees: Xiao Zhiyan, the posthumous adopted daughter of the late Consort Ling, is hereby enfeoffed as Princess He'an. She is granted residence in Lingran Palace and shall be sent to the Han Kingdom for a political marriage in three days. This is the imperial command."

Xiao Zhiyan expressed her thanks and accepted the decree, only to see Jingman beside her looking utterly stunned. She froze, unable to speak.

Soon, all of Xiao Zhiyan's meager "luggage" in the Cold Palace was moved to Lingran Palace. Lingran Palace was the palace where Consort Ling had lived; every detail of the palace showed the Feng King's affection for her. It was just a pity that the beauty was gone, and her only relative had to marry far away to the Han Kingdom; it was truly desolate.

"Are you happy living here? What a shame, you can only stay for three days." Suddenly, a gloating voice rang in her ear. Before Xiao Zhiyan could react, Jingman had already knelt on the ground: "You... Your Highness the Crown Prince, long live..."

Xiao Zhiyan frowned in annoyance before putting on a calm expression: "Imperial Brother, what a coincidence to see you again." Regardless of what Xiao Zhiyan used to call Huangfu Lanxi, since she was now enfeoffed as a Princess, calling him Imperial Brother would certainly not be wrong.