The Eldest Daughter Returns with Power

(Continuing from the previous text, at the third quarter of the Yin hour, the morning light had just dyed the glazed tiles of the Imperial Ancestral Temple red, and Gongsun Lin's knuckles were white as he gripped the sash.)

"Princess Linglong, receive the decree—" The official's drawn-out voice startled the white doves under the eaves. I knelt on the white marble steps, watching my brother's trembling fingers wrap the sash around my waist. The phoenix wings embroidered with gold thread brushed against the old scar on his wrist, a mark left from when he shielded me from a knife last year.

Gongsun Lin suddenly lowered his voice: "Little sister, don't step on your skirt later." He used the act of tying the sash to slip a pine nut candy into my palm.

(Nine cannon salutes startled me so much that the hairpins at my temples trembled wildly.)

The Crown Prince suddenly stepped forward, the twelve imperial symbols on his dark robes dazzling in the sunlight. He lifted his sleeve in front of everyone, revealing a dragon bracelet identical to the one on my wrist: "Twenty years ago, my father and the Duke of Zhenguo were betrothed since childhood, and today..."

"Report—the Northern Rong have captured three cities in succession!" The messenger knocked over a bronze cauldron, and incense ash covered my sleeves. I caught a glimpse of the old servant of the Su family kneeling at the end of the line suddenly raising his head, a cold glint flashing from his sleeve.

(Gongsun Lin spun around and shielded me behind him, the short sword whizzing past his official hat)

The prince drew his sword and deflected the second hidden weapon, the blade stopping abruptly three inches from the assassin's throat: "Leave him alive!" As he turned, the tassels of his crown struck my phoenix crown, the twelve strings of jade beads tangling together.

Amidst the uproar, I simply ripped the tangled string of beads off. The jade beads clattered against the blue bricks, drowning out the sound of the assassin biting into the poison sac. The Empress Dowager rose, leaning on her phoenix-headed cane, the pearls in her hair swaying violently: "Investigate! Investigate thoroughly for me!"

(The official in charge of ceremonies trembled as he held the jade tablet broken in two. Gongsun Lin suddenly stepped on a hidden weapon that rolled to his feet.)

“A wolf-head dart.” He wrapped the hidden weapon in a handkerchief, revealing dark red rust on the edge. “The insignia of the Northern Rong assassins.” Before he finished speaking, a gasp came from the audience—Old Madam Su clutched her chest and collapsed, half of a jade earring made of the same material as my phoenix pendant peeking out from between her fingers.

The Crown Prince suddenly took my hand, stained with incense ash, and slammed the tiger tally into my palm in front of everyone: "Two hundred thousand troops in the Northern Frontier are at your command." The warmth of his palm traveled through the tally, and the sweet words he had spoken to me by my window yesterday still echoed in my ears: "If I were to offer the empire as my dowry, I would require the witness of ten thousand people."

(A gasp came from below the altar, and the old ministers trembled like withered leaves in the wind.)

I shoved the tiger tally back at his armor: "Your Highness, have you forgotten? I said I would go with you." My fingertips traced the breastplate on his chest; the red string I had tied myself yesterday was still wrapped around the dragon pattern.

Gongsun Lin suddenly coughed and, under the guise of adjusting my phoenix crown, whispered a reminder: "The wheel tracks of that carriage in the northwest corner are unusually deep." I looked in that direction and saw half a veiled face peek through the curtain—it looked exactly like Su Ning'er, the one who pushed me into the icy lake back then.

(The music and ritual music suddenly changed, and thirty-six Xuanjia Guards sealed off all the gates of the Imperial Ancestral Temple.)

"How lively!" Yuwen Mo, chewing on a candied hawthorn, climbed onto the eaves, his jade crown hanging askew. "Junior Sister, here's the Northern Rong defense map you requested." As he tossed down the scroll, he deliberately made the arrow drawn in vermilion point towards the seats of the Su family's women.

I unfolded the defense map and chuckled, "Senior brother's wall-climbing skills have improved quite a bit." The edges of the silk scroll were still stained with icing sugar—the very wrapper from the apricot blossom candy I'd sent yesterday. Suddenly, the Crown Prince gripped my wrist tightly, his eyes swirling with emotions I couldn't decipher: "You saw him last night?"

(A child's cries are heard from below the altar, and the mother hurriedly covers the child's mouth.)

As the cannons roared again, I tiptoed close to the Crown Prince's ear and said, "You sent your secret guards to watch me for three months, yet you didn't know that under the red plum tree in my courtyard was the coming-of-age gift from my senior brother?" His ears turned bright red instantly, and the nonsense he had uttered in front of this altar while drunk last night now turned into damp palms.

Gongsun Lin suddenly raised his voice: "Please, Your Highness and Princess, move to the side hall!" The hem of his official robes was already stained dark—the knife had indeed cut him. I tore off half of the sash to bandage him, and the golden phoenix instantly lost its wings.

(The moment the side hall door closed, Yuwen Mo's hidden weapon was embedded in the window frame.)

"The play is over." The Crown Prince suddenly pinned me against a gilded pillar, the beads on his crown tangling again. "I really intended to give you that tiger tally." His breath brushed against the wound on my neck. I bit open the brocade pouch at his waist and pulled out the Northern Border Army token: "It's not too late to give it to you now."