The next day, Xiaolan entered the palace halls alongside Ji-Lie.
Preparations for the coming event were already underway. Servants moved back and forth with trays, silks, and floral arrangements in their hands, while several noblewomen stood gathered around the Grand Princess, listening as she calmly issued one instruction after another. The palace, usually dignified and restrained, was alive with the soft chaos of noble celebration.
Xiaolan stepped forward and bowed. "Your Highness."
Behind her, Ji-Lie lowered herself in an even deeper bow.
The Grand Princess face brightened into a warm smile. "Sister-in-law, you are finally here."
Wumeng crossed the space between them and took Xiaolan's hand in both of hers with easy familiarity. "Come, come. I must introduce you."
She turned toward the noblewomen waiting nearby. "Everyone, this is Wushuang's wife."
Xiaolan's lashes lowered for the briefest moment.
The way Wumeng said Jian Wushuang's name was soft, touched with a gentleness that did not escape her notice. Still, Xiaolan kept her smile in place and said nothing, choosing for now to let the thought pass.
The moment the introduction was made, the noblewomen gathered around her in a flurry of curiosity and thinly veiled interest.
"Oh my... she does look young," one of them murmured.
"I cannot believe the Xu clan truly gave their daughter away in marriage," another said.
"Is she not the one who went to war?" a third added, her brows lifting. "How unusual."
Then one voice, bolder than the rest, cut through the chatter. "I heard you are an illegitimate daughter. Is that true?"
At once, silence descended.
The women who had been whispering a moment ago fell still. Even the air itself seemed to tighten. Behind Xiaolan, Ji-Lie's hands curled into fists at her sides, she ready to throw hands if commanded, she was one order away from dragging the lady across the courtyard floor.
But Xiaolan's expression did not change.
She stood there calmly and answered with a faint smile, "Yes. I am Xiaolan."
Beside her, Wumeng watched with a faint, satisfied smile that flashed across her lips before vanishing almost at once. She lifted a hand gracefully, as though rescuing the moment.
"That is enough, ladies," she said lightly. "She is a princess now. Mind your manners."
The noblewomen immediately stepped back and lowered their heads with polite bows, their earlier boldness vanishing as quickly as it had come.
"Sister-in-law, do not pay attention to them," Wumeng said, her voice smooth and sweet. "The ladies of the court can be terribly brazen." With a flick of her sleeve, she dismissed them, and they scattered without protest.
"It is all right," Xiaolan replied evenly. "I do not mind."
Wumeng looked at her for a moment, as though trying to peer beneath her calm exterior. Then she smiled again. "That is good," she said. "Come. We still have much to do."
She turned and began to walk, and Xiaolan followed behind her, her face serene, though in her heart not a single wall had lowered.
Wumeng soon assigned Xiaolan a task before leaving her among the servants to tend to other matters.
It was a simple enough duty, at least in name: the banquet decorations required ribbons to be tied in alternating shades of red and gold. Three servants were already at work, their fingers moving quickly and neatly as they sorted and fastened the long silken strands. Xiaolan, for her part, had been told she could either supervise them or assist.
Ji-Lie had also been sent away on an errand by the Grand Princess, leaving Xiaolan alone in the middle of work she did not understand.
She picked up a length of ribbon and turned it over in her hands, her brows knitting faintly in confusion. She had seen such decorations many times before in the Xu manor whenever there was a celebration, vivid colours draped over halls, tied around lanterns, looped around pillars with festive precision. But she had never been permitted near those occasions. The splendour of the Xu clan had always been something she was expected to witness from afar, never touch.
Now, standing here with silk between her fingers, she realised she did not even know where to begin.
One of the servants noticed the uncertainty on her face and, after a brief hesitation, gathered enough courage to speak
"Your Highness..." the servant began softly.
She faltered the moment Xiaolan turned to look at her, as though fearful she had spoken out of turn.
Then, carefully, she stretched out her hands. "You may... leave it to us," she said.
Xiaolan shook her head at once. There was no pride in the gesture, only a quiet sincerity. "I do not know how to do this," she admitted, and for a fleeting moment there was something almost childlike in the sadness that touched her face. But then she smiled, gentle and unguarded. "Still, I can learn. If I do, the work will go faster for all of us."
The servant blinked, clearly surprised, before bowing her head quickly. "Yes... yes, Your Highness."
Another servant, emboldened by Xiaolan's kindness, stepped forward with one of the ribbons in hand. "Here, let me show you."
He took the ribbon from her and began to demonstrate, his fingers folding and looping the silk with practised ease until a perfect knot sat in the centre, neat and elegant.
Xiaolan watched closely.
A soft light entered her eyes, quiet and unfeigned, as though she were witnessing something wondrous. It was such a small thing, only a ribbon tied by ordinary hands, yet to her it seemed almost magical, like being gently let into a world that had always been kept just beyond her reach.
She leaned in just a little, studying every movement with earnest attention, as though learning this simple craft mattered far more than anyone there could possibly know.
Before long, Xiaolan began to understand the motion of it.
Her first attempt came loose almost at once. The second was crooked. By the third, the knot had twisted in on itself. The fourth and fifth were no better, and the sixth ended with the ribbon slipping entirely from her fingers.
But on the seventh try, the loops settled just as they should.
The knot held.
For a heartbeat, Xiaolan stared at it in disbelief. Then her face lit up, bright and triumphant, and she lifted the ribbon high as though displaying the spoils of a hard-won victory.
"I got it!" she declared, her voice carrying the same splendor one might have after winning a glorious battle on the field.
The three servants could not help but laugh, their earlier caution easing into genuine warmth. They applauded and Xiaolan, laughing with them, gave a small playful bow in return.
"Your Highness truly learns quickly," one of them said with a grin.
"Yes, yes, I agree," another replied at once, casting a teasing look at the first servant. "Far quicker than some of us did."
The first servant scratched his head in embarrassment, drawing another round of laughter from the others.
The third servant merely shook his head, smiling to himself, while Xiaolan looked at them with quiet delight.
"It was not easy," she admitted honestly. "But thanks to the three of you, I learned quickly."
She looked down at the ribbons scattered before them, then back at the servants, her eyes clear and determined.
"Now," she said, with a small but spirited smile, "let us finish this quickly."
The servants nodded at once, and together they returned to their task, the atmosphere around them lighter than before.
Meanwhile, at the far corner of the palace corridor, half-concealed behind a row of carved pillars, Jian Wushuang came to an abrupt halt.
He had only been passing through, his steps unhurried, when something, someone caught his eye.
"Wife..." The word slipped from his lips softly, almost as though he had spoken without thinking.
Lianju, walking beside him, glanced over in surprise. Curious at what could have caused the prince to stop so suddenly, he followed Jian Wushuang's gaze into the distance.
And then he saw her.
Xiaolan sat among the servants, a ribbon still in her hand, smiling.
No, more than smiling. She was laughing.
Jian Wushuang narrowed his eyes slightly, then lifted a hand to his chin and tilted his head as if the angle might somehow make the sight more believable.
"Lianju," he called.
Lianju stepped a little closer at once.
Jian Wushuang pointed toward the scene ahead without taking his eyes off it. "Tell me," he said slowly, "is that she-devil truly smiling, or have my eyes finally weakened from all that suffering in the Cold Palace?"
Lianju looked from Xiaolan to his prince, then back again. "Your Highness," he said gravely, "your eyesight was never particularly impressive, even before the suffering."
Jian Wushuang turned to stare at him in offended disbelief.
Lianju, unfazed, continued, "But you are correct. The Princess is smiling." He paused, then added with greater precision, "Laughing, actually."
Jian Wushuang's gaze sharpened as he looked back toward Xiaolan. There she was, her expression softer than he had ever seen it, the usual guarded frost around her nowhere to be found. It was such a strange sight that he almost doubted it.
Then, after a beat, he cast Lianju a sidelong glance. "If I cannot see properly, it is clearly your fault."
With that deeply reasonable conclusion, he turned and walked off.
Lianju "...."
How exactly is that my fault? he thought.