After the meal, the Emperor stood up and said, “Heng’er, Fuyi, come take a walk with Zhen.”
Fuyi followed behind the Emperor, who took them all the way to the imperial garden. Suddenly, the Emperor pointed to a distant corner where a rockery stood and said to Fuyi, “The first time Zhen saw you, you weren’t even as tall as my leg. You were clinging to that rockery, so Zhen had to carry you down.”
Following the Emperor’s gesture, Fuyi looked at the rockery, and a memory slowly surfaced in her mind.
Back then, she had been around five or six years old. Because a Taoist priest in the late emperor’s court had claimed that she possessed the auspicious fate that would be beneficial for the Purple Star1, the late emperor often summoned her to the palace for short stays.
She disliked the palace momos overseeing her, so she would sneak out to play in the imperial garden. One time, after climbing up a rockery, she realized she was too afraid to come down. Fearing the strict momos would discover her, she could only squat there, waiting for a kind passerby to save her.
She was lucky. Before long, a man in an old robe walked by. She waved at him to carry her down. After he did, she noticed his dejected expression and tugged at his sleeve, asking, “Are you crying?”
The man ignored her, so she leaned closer, staring at his face. “You really are crying, aren’t you?”
“I never cry,” the man replied stiffly, sitting down on the steps with her and even taking half the sweets from the pouch at her waist. “What use is crying?”
“Who says crying is useless?” Seeing the wound on his forehead, she took out a handkerchief to clean it before giving him the rest of her sweets. “You grown-ups care too much about your dignity. That’s why you think crying is useless.”
The man crunched on the sweets noisily. “What does a little brat like you know about dignity?”
“Who says I don’t?” She was displeased and snatched back half of the sweets she had given him. “I have plenty of dignity in front of my friends—they all call me boss.”
“You care about your dignity, but you want me to throw mine away and cry?”
“You’re so stupid.” Fuyi put her hands on her hips in disdain. “You should cry only when it matters—like how I only cry in front of my father, mother, and His Majesty.”
The man quickly finished the sweets and then held out his hand. “Give me more.”
“No.” Fuyi clutched her pouch protectively, but before she finished speaking, the man lay down on the ground, pretending to cry.
Afraid the palace momos would hear, she hurriedly stuffed the sweets into his hand. “Fine, fine! Just don’t cry!”
The man chuckled, nodding as he ate. “Crying does work, huh?”
“Hmph!” Little Fuyi, seizing her chance while he was distracted, stomped on him and ran off without looking back, lifting her skirt as she fled.
That event had happened so long ago that Fuyi could no longer recall the man’s face—only that a shameless grown-up had tricked her out of half a pouch of sweets.
Remembering her childish insistence on checking if he was crying, Fuyi wished she could hide her face.
“Zhen never expected a child so small to have the strength of a calf. My leg ached for two days after that kick.” The Emperor chuckled at the memory. Seeing Fuyi hesitating between wanting to cover her face and not daring to, he laughed even harder. “Come, let’s go have a look at that rockery.”
“Your Majesty,” Fuyi’s voice was weak, “This subject daughter was young and ignorant…”
‘And you, a grown man, tricked a little girl out of her sweets. You weren’t all that mature yourself.’
“Turns out Father Emperor and Miss Yun have known each other for this long,” Sui Tingheng spoke up, easing Fuyi’s embarrassment. “What a fated connection.”
As a child, both he and his mother had dreaded whenever the late emperor summoned his father to the palace. Every time he did, his father would be scolded and beaten without exception.
After he turned eight, the late emperor gradually stopped summoning his father, only mentioning him with disdain, calling him weak, coward, and incompetent, without a trace of affection.
The rockery that had once seemed impossibly high that she dared not to jump now looked rather small. Fuyi glanced at it and gave the Emperor an awkward smile.
“Here.” The Emperor took out a pouch filled with sweets exclusively made by the imperial kitchen. “Returning your sweets.”
Fuyi: “…”
‘You tricked me out of these sweets over ten years ago, and you’re only returning them now?’
Of course, she accepted the pouch with a graceful smile, “Thank you for the reward, Your Majesty.”
“Yun Fuyi, hear Zhen’s decree.” The Emperor chuckled. “Yun Wanggui, Minister of Revenue, has a daughter who is intelligent from a young age and has contributed greatly to the nation. Zhen hereby confers upon her the title of Junzhu2, grant her a vermilion phoenix carriage, and bestow upon her a fief of three hundred households.”
“Your Majesty?!” Kneeling on the ground, Fuyi looked up at him in shock.
‘This stingy emperor’s actually willing to give me land?!’
Three hundred households were not much, but receiving land meant receiving its tax revenue, and more importantly, a hereditary title.
“You helped resolve the border military funds, weakened Ning Wang’s influence, and foiled conspiracies against Zhen and the Crown Prince. If you were a man, you would have long since been promoted for these merits, but Zhen shall not disregard your achievements just because of your gender.” The Emperor’s gaze was warm and kind, his fondness for her undisguised. “If Minister Yun weren’t so reluctant, Zhen would have adopted you as my foster daughter.”
As Sui Tingheng helped Fuyi up, the mention of ‘foster daughter’ instantly put him on alert—according to ancestral law, foster siblings could not marry one another.
“This subject daughter is unworthy…”
“Rest assured, Zhen won’t steal Minister Yun’s beloved daughter.” The Emperor laughed heartily. “Didn’t you once say the subjects are Zhen’s children? Even if Zhen doesn’t adopt you formally, Zhen still sees you as my daughter.”
He reached out and pinched the bun of hair atop Fuyi’s head. “Go play with Heng’er. Zhen will return to the imperial study to handle governmental affairs.”
A little girl wouldn’t understand how sweet a handful of sugar could be to a grown man who had been forced into despair by his father, unable to protect his wife and child, bullied and pushed to the brink.
He had tricked her out of half her sweets by pretending to cry, just as he had used that same act to make his father dismiss him as a useless coward and eventually ignore him altogether.
That was how his family of three finally gained a breathing space. They managed to survive, holding on until the day he took the throne.
“Your Imperial Highness.” Fuyi clutched her now flattened hair bun and turned to Sui Tingheng.
“Father Emperor is sometimes… unconcerned with propriety, but he never jokes about such matters.” Sui Tingheng supported her as they descended the rockery. “He truly sees you as his own niece.”
‘Own niece? That sounds ominous. The emperor’s real nieces and nephews… weren’t they all dead, except for Sui Xun?’
Seeing her expression, Sui Tingheng could guess what she was thinking and chuckled. “Don’t overthink it. Just assume you’re the only niece he acknowledges.”
Fuyi responded with a chuckle.
“And… please don’t take my parents’ words to heart. I have no such thoughts.”
“What words?” Fuyi didn’t catch on immediately. She hopped lightly off the steps, and Sui Tingheng instinctively reached out to steady her.
“About finding a woman I admire.” Through the fabric of his sleeve, Sui Tingheng held her wrist firmly. “I don’t like those women.”
Not before. Not in the future.
Fuyi looked at him curiously. “Then Your Imperial Highness—”
“Your Imperial Highness the Crown Prince?!” On a narrow path just outside the rockery, Princess Kangyang stared in horror at Sui Tingheng’s grip on Fuyi’s wrist, trembling all over. “How could you—”
‘How could you look so close to this notorious troublemaker?!’
‘Oh dear ancestors of the Sui family!! Do get up and make sure the Crown Prince sees reason!’
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Author’s Note:
Princess Kangyang: “Ancestors, just look at him!”
Sui Tingheng: “Dad, I beg you, stop randomly adopting daughters!”
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- Purple Star Astrology: Also known as Ziwei doushu (紫微斗数), it is a form of fortune-telling in Chinese culture. It uses the year, month, day, and time of birth in the lunar calendar to arrange a person’s horoscope and calculate their destiny. The Purple Star is the first and main star used in the horoscope, hence its name.
- Junzhu (郡主): Princess of the Third Rank. A title usually granted to the daughter of a qinwang.