The Crown Prince Secretly Loves the Crown Princess – Chapter 1
Amidst the willow branches, the stifling summer heat abruptly dissipates from the Chang’an city streets.
The tipsily blowing night wind makes the slender willow leaves flutter noisily. A pair of green-feathered, long-tailed magpies silently dart past the swaying branches. Sounds of distant singing, dancing and theatre carry over on the wind, layer upon layer.
“Maharaja, Maharaja, eight taels of silver for one!”
“Conjoined lotuses! Made with fresh lotus flowers!”
On the seventh day of the seventh lunar month, the streets and alleys near the Eastern Pavilion are filled with carriages and horses, colorful silks strewn all over the ground. Today is the Beseeching Skills Festival, with human rivers flowing down the North-South Avenues as shops open up one after another. Under the festive canopies erected along the streets, all kinds of amazing trinkets are being sold.
“Young hero, your wine!” At a street corner wine shop, the boss brings up a wine gourd and hands it to the customer before him.
With a light “pa”, the customer casually flicks his finger, sending the wine gourd spinning upside down in midair. As wine streams out, he raises his head to take a drink while reaching up to catch the falling gourd.
“Excellent wine, excellent!” She laughs while slapping the gourd, revealing hands as fair as green onion stalks.
The one addressed as the chivalrous hero turns out to be a young maiden. A small bamboo hat shades her looks, with a green arrow shirt and high ponytail. Tied onto her back is a white hemp package, long and thin, towering far above her height. Based on the shape it is likely a type of long weapon.
“Young hero,” the boss sidles a bit closer, speaking in a low voice. “Someone’s after you.”
Jiang Kui glances back. “Hmph, those Northern beggar gang members again…”
Amidst the surging crowds, a group of beggars shove their way over. Some sing the Lotus Flower Song, some pretend to be various deities, some hold out small stone begging bowls, seemingly moving along casually with the crowds yet drawing closer and closer to this wine shop.
“Please, young hero,” the boss bows obsequiously. “No fighting in my shop.”
“Alright alright, since you let me drink for free here.”
Jiang Kui tosses back the last drop before tying the emptied gourd to her waist. Then she lightly springs upwards, landing nimbly on the roof!
The beggars hidden in the crowds make their move at the same time. Casting aside their props, they converge at the wine shop front and leap up after her onto the rooftops! Amidst cries of shock, the young maiden being chased by the group soon disappears onto the continuous stretch of rooftops.
Only the wine shop boss does not look up. Face twisting bitterly, he stares at the mess of crushed canopies covering his ground and grumbles incessantly: “Young madam, next time please don’t come to my shop for drinks!”
Moonlight spills amongst the green tiles, its silver brilliance cascading like water.
Approaching footsteps ring out from afar, sudden as a fierce storm, rattling all the eaves tiles.
“All I did was mess up your Beggar Gang leader’s birthday party! Is that worth chasing me to the ends of earth?” The young arrow-clothed maiden nimbly leaps between rooftops, turning to shout as she runs.
“A mere messing up?” The lead beggar rages instantly. “There’s still avenging scores for stealing treasures and encroaching territories – we haven’t settled with you for any of that!”
“Oh heavens, old beggar your memory is too good!” Jiang Kui complains ruefully as she speeds up even faster. “I was only trying to save people!”
The old beggar gives a cold snort before raising his arm. A long whip flashes out – not a flexible leather one but an iron whip, glinting dangerously.
“Going straight to violence since you can’t win with words?” Jiang Kui stops abruptly and turns.
The instant the iron whip cracks towards her, she shrugs off the white hemp package on her back and pulls out the weapon inside.
It is an extremely long spear with a white pearwood staff and an icy silvery spearhead that dwarfs the slim girl holding it. Yet her erect posture gives her the air of a proud battle goddess.
“She has drawn her spear!” A beggar yells loudly.
The remaining beggars tense up, as if the armed young girl is some kind of monster.
She whirls back, standing tall with spear held high, then thrusts out sharply!
Spear and iron whip collide violently amidst deafening metallic clangs that drown out even the distant music from the streets.
“Old beggar,” the maiden’s smile blooms radiantly. “Are you adding a grievance for stolen weapon next time?”
Her spear flicks up to entangle the iron whip. She vibrates the spear rapidly before forcefully jerking it back. The whip slips free from the old beggar’s hands to be flung high in midair by her!
As the old beggar rushes up to retrieve his iron whip, tinkling laughter sounds. The maiden drops down from the rooftop to land lightly in an empty alley. Her unbound hair dances gracefully in the night wind.
Once grounded, her expression shifts.
“Don’t tell me…I just ruined a birthday party, is that worth mobilizing so many to chase me?” She murmurs to herself.
Contrary to belief this is not an empty alley. Countless beggars stream in from all directions, encircling her completely. Thick night shadows ripple with dots of blade light flickering in the darkness.
Believing herself to have escaped, she has unwittingly fallen into a trap instead.
“Hmph, you lawless little thief,” the old beggar looks down at her from the rooftop. “Today we will capture and haul you back for punishment in the gang!”
“We’ll see if you even have that capability!”
Jiang Kui continues acting tough while growing somewhat frantic inside.
Glancing up at the crescent moon in the quiet sky, she estimates the time and thinks anxiously – I’m done for, won’t make it in time, going to be late.
The beggars approach steadily, various weapons in hand, closing in around her bit by bit.
She feigns calmness while sharply raising her hand to point diagonally upwards. “Look! What’s that?”
Taking advantage when all their gazes follow her pointing finger, she lunges out her spear and charges through an opening without hesitation!
“It’s the moon!” The maiden’s voice ripples brightly. Her spear sweeps aside a patch of weapons, the immense force sending the beggars tumbling helter skleter. “I tricked you with something so simple, you’re too easy to fool!”
Once more her spear flicks up as she breaks through the crowds!
However the path ahead remains arduous. As she sprints forwards beggars emerge nonstop on both sides. They seem to be everywhere, tailing her constantly ahead. Like a headless duck she crashes randomly until reaching an empty wide street.
At the end of the long street, sits a quiet cyan-canopied carriage.
“Master Pu Liu!”
Her eyes light up in recognition of that carriage.
With its cyan canopy and white horses adorned in jade, it belongs to the famous intermediary in the martial world, “Elder Master Pu Liu”.
Intermediaries serve as brokers between assassins and clients. When a bounty is issued clients, the intermediary looks for someone in the martial world to take on the commission. She often takes bounties from this Master Pu Liu to earn some drinking money, hence her familiarity with his carriage.
Having identified her target, she charges straight for the carriage while shouting: “Help, save me!”
A slender, fair-skinned hand parts the cyan curtain and slowly stretches out from within the carriage.
“You can’t be serious.” Jiang Kui’s eyes widen. “You want money to lend a hand too?”
The hand remains motionless.
She sighs before hurriedly frisking herself all over, confirming her lack of money. Thus she unties the emptied wine gourd at her waist and fiercely hurls it towards the carriage!
“No money, this wine gourd will have to do!” She laughs while calling out.
A thin red cord is knotted to the wine gourd, fluttering lightly in the wind.
The pale green curtain ripples open a slit for the wine gourd to noiselessly vanish inside.
The outstretched hand stirs faintly before closing into a fist, raising a finger to vaguely point towards some direction, then withdrawing back inside the carriage.
“Many thanks!” The maiden cups one hand in appreciation before dashing off in the directed path.
“Miss ‘Falling Flowers Mark the Silver Spear’, you owe me one.” The person in the carriage toys with the red cord on the wine gourd, chuckling softly. “Do remember that.”
Within the brightly lit Jiang Residence, the compound of the Grand General bustles with people.
On the night of the seventh day of the seventh month, all the eminent lords have erected festive towers in the yard, laying out an array of skill-beseeching items below like melon seeds, fruits, embroidery threads, brush and inkstone. Incense burns as they kneel in prayer, commonly known as a “beseeching tower”. On the night of the seventh day, the ladies of each household will seal spiders in boxes. The next day when the boxes are opened, those whose spiders have spun dense webs are considered to have exceptional needlework skills – this is called “divining skills”. The general’s manor is no different.
However this massive general’s estate only has one lady – the youngest daughter of the general, Jiang Kui, courtesy name Xiao Man.
“Why isn’t she here yet?” The Grand General paces anxiously back and forth below the festive tower in the yard, sweat beading his forehead. “Meeting at Qujiang tonight but she’s late already! Xiao Qing, go urge the young miss!”
“The dew falls thickly tonight. The young miss is slightly unwell and likely slept until now out of illness. This servant will go urge her immediately.” The maid in green bows demurely before hurrying towards the inner residence.
At the end of the winding little path lies the young miss’s bedchambers. The waterside pavilion tower is shaded by an ancient sophora tree. Its flourishing and enormous crown stretches over the wall with several leafy branches heavily weighing down the top.
With a light “step”, the arrow-clothed maiden flips over the wall to nimbly drop down from the tree.
“Young miss, you nearly frightened me to death!” Maid Xiao Qing rushes forward to pat the dust off of her. “The meeting at Qujiang is already late and the old master is rushing you!”
“Don’t rush, I know I’m late.” Jiang Kui hands her the spear then strides hastily towards her bedchambers. “I slipped out today to drink free wine at the Eastern Pavilion streets but ran into those endless Northern Beggars again. This young lady nearly couldn’t make it back in time!”
Shaking loose her hair, she sits before the mirror and bites down on a silver hairpin, absently beginning to put up her hair.
“Young miss, no need to do your own hair. Let me.” Maid Xiao Qing glances at her and cries tragically. “This night you are meeting your intended, it won’t do to casually twist something together.”
So Jiang Kui drops her hands and lets her hair cascade like water. The girl in the mirror has features as exquisite as a painting. Nestled amidst the misty dark locks, her face seems even more petite and luminous. A hint of soft red graces her cheeks with an intoxicatingly tender and sweet fragrance described in poems.
As the maid arranges her hair from behind, she puts on makeup before the mirror. She is extremely skilled, and as her fingers move liquidly the lively young girl in the bronze mirror disappears. In her stead is a sickly pale beauty with eyes glistening with unshed tears.
Jiang Kui is very satisfied with how she looks.
Rising to her feet, she strips off the arrow shirt and changes into a light pink embroidered silk gown under maid Xiao Qing’s ministrations, hair held in place by silver hairpins and white jade combs. She leisurely turns in front of the bronze mirror on the wall, striking the bearing of a delicate willow in the wind. She even gives a few gentle coughs. Languishing sorrow fills her lowering eyes as she wheezes faintly – the very image of a breathtakingly beautiful lady from a boudoir painting.
“Speaking of which, who am I meeting tonight?” She suddenly asks.
“It is… the Crown Prince, His Highness Xie Wuyang.”
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