Consort of a Thousand Faces

Crouching down, he lifted her sleeves up to reveal the scars that were left behind by the whip. While they were slowly fading, they still hadn’t completely vanished. If she had been whipped for a few more years, no medicinal powder would’ve been able to help.

 

Pei Qianhao’s hand slowly moved down her arm. Despite this, there was still no reaction from Su Xi-er.

 

He chuckled. Sleeping in such a manner. What if someone harbouring menacing thoughts comes in? Even she gets bullied, she can only be resigned to it.

 

At this moment, Pei Qianhao didn’t realise that he was the one who often entered Su Xi-er’s room and bullied her.

 

He grasped her left hand and caressed her wrist carefully. My intuition has always been accurate. The one in the woods beside the Palace Side Quarters was her. That night, I had broken her wrist. Did she set this wrist bone herself? Or did she look for someone to set it? Could it be that the one she looked for was Situ Li?

 

Right at this moment, Su Xi-er yelled loudly, “Don’t!” She immediately woke up with a start after that.

 

The blank look in her eyes caused her to appear completely lost, making Pei Qianhao feel doubtful.

 

Finally, he raised his hand to pat her face. “You had a nightmare?”

 

His deep and low voice, along with the pat to her face, caused Su Xi-er to immediately become alert.

 

She wanted to get up and pay her greetings, but realised that her left wrist was held by him. Her slender eyebrows were slightly scrunched up. This location… was previously dislocated by him. I was the one who clenched my teeth as I set it.

 

“What’s wrong? Your eyes are looking blank even as you stare at your left wrist.”

 

Su Xi-er raised her head to look at him, “Prince Hao, why did you come to the Laundry Service Bureau?” She tried to move her left hand a little as she spoke.

 

Pei Qianhao didn’t make things difficult for her and simply let go of her wrist. “Have you worn the red Chinese bodice I gave you yesterday?”

 

He asked such a question with no sense of shame at all, causing Su Xi-er to be left speechless. Of course I didn’t wear it. If I wear it, I would need to wash it. Which palace maid would dare to hang such a conspicuous red bodice out to dry?!

 

Pei Qianhao’s eyebrows furrowed slightly, but his expression returned to normal very quickly. He raised his hand and wanted to pull her clothes off. “This prince will know whether you have worn it or not with just one glance.”

 

Su Xi-er immediately stopped him. “Prince Hao, not only do you have a hobby of secretly storing women’s Chinese bodices, you even…”

 

At this point, Pei Qianhao shot her a cold look and Su Xi-er immediately stopped. She began to observe his expression in an attempt to understand his thoughts.

 

He is an apex existence in Beimin, with nobody daring to even say ‘no’ to him. If I really offend him, he truly has the authority to behead me whenever he is displeased.

 

It was hard for Su Xi-er to admit this point. Misogyny in Beimin is even more rampant than in Nanzhao. Even the Empress Dowager is given the cold shoulder by Pei Qianhao.  

 

“Su Xi-er, this prince insists on looking today. Did you want to say that this prince also has a hobby of peeping at women?” Pei Qianhao actually laughed. Even then, his laughter was strange to the point where it caused people to tremble with fear, only feeling that this was a bit terrifying.

 

“You said the part about peeping at women yourself, Prince Hao. This servant didn’t say that.”

 

“Glib tongue.” Then, Pei Qianhao exerted strength in his hands.

 

In an instant, Su Xi-er’s clothes...

 

When he saw a grey Chinese bodice made of coarse cloth, Pei Qianhao asked coldly, “You’re not wearing the one I gave you?”

 

Su Xi-er shook her head. “It’s not that I don’t want to, but that I don’t dare to.”

 

“In the whole world, no one dares to tell this prince a single ‘no’. Wear it when I tell you to do so. This bodice is even…” Pei Qianhao didn’t continue.

 

When he had lifted her sleeves that night, her eyes had flickered with an unfathomable radiance. It felt like hope and despair were mixed in the same gaze. Immediately after that, he saw her arms filled with scars. 

 

It was the first time he felt that this woman was a little pitiful. Giving her clothes could be considered as taking pity on her.

However, she made him feel that she was hateful now. The sages adage were correct. A pitiful person definitely has a loathsome part to them, for a person’s pathetic plight must have been due to them being unrepentant for their past mistakes[1].

1. I tried to include both the literal and figurative meaning. It’s a proverb used to criticise a minority of people. It is used to describe a seemingly pitiful person whose life is not going as he wishes because of the mistakes he has made in the past and how he doesn’t attempt to change them. It is a little similar to ‘you reap what you sow’ and ‘you made the bed, now lie in it’.