A Wife's Rebellion

My husband was a man who had transmigrated into a book.

On our wedding day, he told me that one day I would love him with every fiber of my being.

I smiled sweetly and said, "My husband is absolutely right."

The moment I turned around, I was already whispering to my maid about how to find him a few concubines.

As the legitimate wife of a noble house, who cared about so-called "love"? I only wanted power.

And I wanted children—grandchildren, even—so that my power would be unshakable.

1

I grew up in a royal palace.

I had seen everything that power brought, and everything that lurked beneath it.

So when other girls my age blushed at the sight of handsome young men, I only wanted to know their backgrounds and figure out how they could be useful.

Ethan was the eldest son of the Grand General who guarded the nation.

He was handsome, skilled in martial arts, well-versed in military strategy, and clever.

He would one day inherit his father's title and command a formidable force.

When my father added him to the list of potential suitors, I immediately sent people to investigate every aspect of his life.

I discovered that beyond his impressive exterior, he was also sharp and tactful—unlike his straightforward, soldierly father, he knew how to maneuver in court.

He was exactly the kind of dignified man I wanted.

So the marriage negotiations went smoothly.

Once I turned fifteen, we began discussing the wedding date.

A year later, I married Ethan.

2

When a princess married a general, the wedding shook the entire city.

All the court officials and the most noble members of the royal family came to offer their congratulations.

Ethan had drunk a lot. According to his nanny, he rested in the front hall for half an hour before coming to the bridal chamber.

The moment he entered, he stared at me blankly. "You're Claire?"

I inclined my head slightly. "General Ethan."

He clutched his head and muttered, "It's over, it's over. I really did transmigrate into a book. It's all those idiots' fault for making me read that novel..."

His words were strange, and I couldn't understand most of them.

But from his expression, I could tell he wasn't entirely pleased with this marriage.

I couldn't ask him directly, of course.

So I tried to follow his lead. "What is... transmigrating into a book?"

Ethan looked at me gloomily.

Then he plopped down on the edge of the bed and said, "It means that you and everything here are part of a story in a book. I came in from outside. I don't belong here."

He even mimed a diving motion to show how he'd "transmigrated" in. It was rather childish.

I quietly signaled to my nanny, who was standing by the door. Leaning close, I whispered, "Find out if Ethan has some kind of madness. And don't let my father know."

3

When Ethan saw my nanny leave, he immediately became wary. "You don't believe me?"

"Not at all, my husband. What you're saying is very novel. I just haven't fully understood it yet."

He launched into a detailed description of everything in the capital.

It was all very accurate.

But he lived in the capital. Knowing these things was perfectly normal.

Why did he act as if he were proving something to me? If he *didn't* know, that would be strange.

After he finished, Ethan turned to me. "According to the book, you'll love me more than your own life one day. You'd die for me."

I nodded and smiled. "My husband is right."

But inside, I was sneering. Love was nothing compared to life. Even power and money were more important.

Still, for all his madness, he was quite proper. He spoke and acted with respect toward me.

Probably because I was a princess.

But his absolute refusal to consummate the marriage was deeply humiliating.

When Ethan saw I was angry, his face flushed with panic.

"It's not what you think!" he explained. "It's just that you're too young. Sixteen isn't an adult yet. Even I wouldn't be able to do it. Where I come from, that's a crime. You go to jail."

His tone was sincere. He didn't seem to be lying.

And I never expected a battle-hardened general to blush so fiercely. It was... oddly endearing.

My anger subsided a little.

I decided to tease him. "And what will you say if your family asks?"

Ethan froze.

He thought for a moment, then suddenly shoved his finger into his mouth and bit down hard.

I couldn't stop him in time.

When the blood welled up, he threw back the covers and started wiping it on the bedsheet.

This time, I was fast enough to grab his hand.

Otherwise, we wouldn't have gotten any sleep that night.

4

That night, I slept in the bed while he spread his bedding on the floor.

Afraid someone might overhear and discover the truth, he let out a few grunts and groans himself.

I covered my mouth and laughed into the blanket.

Ethan sat up and said, "Don't laugh. At your age, where I come from, you'd be in high school, studying until your hair falls out. The last thing on your mind would be marriage."

There was still a lot I didn't understand in his words, but I caught the part about girls studying.

"What did you study?" I asked.

"I graduated from university, then joined the army," he said.

Then he explained what "university" and "graduation" meant.

I knew what joining the army was. He'd done that long ago.

On our wedding night, one of us in the bed and the other on the floor, we talked for half the night.

The next morning, just as dawn was breaking, Ethan sat up with a start and asked in surprise, "Why wasn't there a reveille this morning?"

5

I regretted not investigating him more thoroughly before the wedding.

If he kept talking like this, how would I explain it to others?

And where would my dignity be?

Luckily, when we went to pay our respects to his parents, he behaved perfectly normally.

But the moment we left the main hall, he started muttering again. "This is tragic. What were you people thinking, marrying a general to a prince? Aren't you afraid the Emperor will get suspicious?"

I frowned at him. "You must show respect. Our marriage was approved by His Majesty."

"Yes, he approved it openly, but he'll stab you in the back later. Then you won't even have a place to cry."

He turned to look back at the hall we'd just left. "They won't even be able to live."

6

He was raving again. I clenched my teeth.

When we returned to our room to change, I called my nanny in.

She carefully closed the door before coming close to report. "Your Highness, I've made inquiries. There's no record of General Ethan having any madness."

"Are you sure?"

"Absolutely. Our informants in the general's mansion spoke to people close to the old general. They said Ethan was clever from childhood. He never even said a foolish thing, let alone raved."

She lowered her voice. "Could it be... that he was possessed on the wedding day?"

"He's a general. He's killed countless men on the battlefield. Even the King of Hell would be afraid of him. What could possess him?"

Still, her words stirred something in me. "After we pay our respects at the palace, we'll go to the Great Temple."

Ethan was already waiting for me. The general's carriage was waiting outside.

When we'd gone to pay respects to the old general, he'd given us a detailed explanation of the etiquette for thanking the royal family.

He didn't need to teach me any of that.

I'd been going in and out of the palace since I was a child. I knew everything.

But as soon as we got into the carriage, Ethan warned me, "Claire, when we get to the palace, don't say anything careless. Especially in front of the Imperial Consort."

There was only one Imperial Consort in the palace. She was my mother's younger sister.

She had always been very kind to me.

7

But Ethan's reputation for cleverness wasn't undeserved.

Since he'd said so, I decided to be more cautious and see what happened.

The carriage stopped at the palace gate. Eunuchs were already waiting.

We followed them on foot to the main hall to pay respects to the Emperor.

By common custom, I should have called him "uncle."

But in the royal family, there were only ruler and subject. So Ethan and I bowed respectfully and kowtowed.

His Majesty sat high on his dragon throne, smiling kindly. "Jingyuan, your father came to the palace early this morning and told me he missed you terribly, even though you've only been married for a day. I told him to wait a little longer and see you, but he said he'd wait until the third-day visit."

Jingyuan was my title.

I bowed again before answering seriously, "My father is respectful and observant of propriety. He would never overstep."

His Majesty was satisfied. He stroked his beard and said, "Hmm. A bit too rigid, perhaps."

"Rules must be followed," I replied.

He turned to Ethan and asked about the border situation.

I was terrified Ethan would say something like "reveille" or "transmigrating into a book" and arouse His Majesty's suspicion. I was about to change the subject when he spoke first.

"The border situation is critical. We cannot be without a general for a single day. Now that my marriage to Princess Jingyuan is complete, I can head north next month."

I nearly lost my composure. My mind was in turmoil.

What was he doing?

Who goes off to war right after getting married?

Had the war reached the capital?

Even the Emperor was taken aback. He raised a hand to calm him. "General Ethan, I know you're worried about the border. But you and Jingyuan have just been married. You must remain in the capital for at least a year."

Ethan was about to argue, but the Emperor cut him off. "Enough. Go to the rear palace and pay your respects to the Empress and the Imperial Consort."

The eunuch handed the gifts to our attendants and escorted us out of the main hall.

I dismissed the attendants and pulled Ethan into a pavilion. "Are you really going north?"

He winked at me. "Yes. I know how to fight. It's the right place for me."

I was speechless.

He was a general. Knowing how to fight was the most basic requirement.

But what did he mean by "the right place"? Wasn't the general's mansion the right place for him?

Ethan didn't explain further. He just urged me, "Come on. Let's get this over with and go home. It's cold today. I don't want you to catch a chill."

8

The Empress was frail. She said a few words, gave us some gifts, and let us go.

Ethan was more cautious when we went to the Imperial Consort's palace.

Before we entered, he warned me again not to be too casual.

I was still annoyed by what he'd said in the main hall, so I ignored him and walked straight in.

A maid came out to greet us. "Princess Jingyuan has arrived. The Imperial Consort has been waiting for some time."

I paused, forcing myself to swallow the word "aunt" and instead said, "I have kept Her Highness waiting."

Ethan, who had caught up, shot me an approving look.

I turned my face away, pretending not to see.

Inside the main hall, the Imperial Consort took my hand, her face full of smiles, and called me by my childhood name.

In the past, I would have thrown myself into her arms and called her "aunt."

But today, I was more distant.

The Imperial Consort noticed. Her gaze flickered to Ethan.

She said to the maid, "His Majesty gifted me some new tea yesterday. Take the young general to the side hall to try it."

Before the maid could move, Ethan clapped his hands together and gave the Imperial Consort a fist-and-palm salute.

"Thank you, Your Highness. But I'm a rough man. I don't know anything about tea."

He looked at me. "And Jingyuan didn't sleep well last night. She said she wasn't feeling well this morning, with a headache. I'm afraid if she sits with Your Highness too long, she might pass on her illness. So... may I take her home?"

The Imperial Consort and I were both stunned.

Then my face flushed crimson.

But the Imperial Consort laughed. "I didn't know the young general was so frank and considerate. My little Yuan is truly fortunate."

She took my hand. "In that case, go home early. Your health is most important."

The words "your health" made me want to crawl into a hole.

9

If we weren't still in the palace, I would have asked Ethan what was going on in his head.

How could he say something like that in front of others?

And the truth was, nothing had even happened!

We went through the motions at the other palaces, but by the time we left, the entire palace knew we'd had a late night.

I wondered if anyone would believe me if I tried to explain that we'd just been talking.

As we left the palace and headed back to the general's mansion, my maid came up to me with a sly smile. "Your Highness, the Madam has asked you to come to her room."

As a new bride, I had to answer my mother-in-law's summons.

When I entered the courtyard, I saw a dozen maids standing there, each holding a tray.

There were more waiting behind them.

The old general's wife was waiting for me under the eaves. When she saw me, she hurried over. "Your Highness, you must be exhausted!"

I was confused.

Remembering all the walking I'd done in the palace and how angry Ethan had made me, I just nodded. "I am a bit tired."

My mother-in-law's face was full of concern.

If there weren't so many people watching, I think she would have crouched down and carried me on her back.

The moment we entered the room, she had the maids bring me a chair, padded with two quilts, with a pillow for my back.

Then she carefully helped me sit down.

After that, she took a bowl of bird's nest soup from a maid. "Your Highness, this was just cooked. I had it taken off the fire when I heard you were leaving the palace. It's cooled down to just the right temperature. Please, have a taste."

I was so confused, I felt like a cloud had formed over my head.

I had to ask, "Mother... what is all this?"

My mother-in-law's face turned red.

She covered her eyes with her handkerchief. "It's all that boy Ethan's fault. Before the wedding, I told him clearly to be moderate in all things. But he's young and hot-blooded... Oh, Your Highness, you've been through so much. Please, have something to eat and regain your strength."

The maids set a dozen bowls and jars on the table in an instant.

Just looking at them made me feel full.

10

News traveled fast.

Before I could finish dealing with my mother-in-law's soup, my parents sent someone.

An old nurse, accompanied by four maids, was first taken to my courtyard.

My mother-in-law was probably afraid I'd complain to my parents. She apologized profusely and said she'd give Ethan a good scolding.

I thought to myself, *Yes, you should scold him. He needs to learn to keep his mouth shut.*

When I returned to my courtyard and faced my own family's nurse, I couldn't keep up the pretense anymore.

I told her directly, "Tell my father and mother to rest easy. Ethan didn't bully me. I was just tired from being in the palace for so long. He said that to get me out of there. I didn't expect it to cause such a misunderstanding."

The old nurse murmured a prayer. "The Princess was so worried. She was afraid you weren't taking care of yourself."

I would have liked to take care of myself.

But Ethan wasn't giving me the chance.

*Ugh. What am I thinking?*

I pressed a hand to my racing heart and spent a long time explaining and reassuring the nurse.

I finally managed to send them off, but before I could catch my breath, my mother-in-law came in, dragging Ethan by the ear.

She gave him a thorough scolding right in front of me.

I enjoyed that. I just kept my head down and said nothing.

When she was done, I pretended to be shy. "Mother, the palace gifted a piece of white mutton fat jade today. The quality is excellent. I'll have Rose deliver it to you. You can have a pair of bracelets made from it."

The day's chaos finally ended with the jade.

We didn't eat in the main hall that evening. Instead, we had our meal in our own courtyard.

Ethan was quite pleased with himself. "See how clever I am, Claire? I killed two birds with one stone today."

I didn't feel like talking.

He cheerfully explained, "I got you out of the palace early so you didn't have to listen to them prattle on and try to pry information out of you. And I spread the word that we'd... you know... so no one would say anything bad about you."

I gave him a cold look. "And in two months, when people start asking if you're with child, what will you carve for them then, my husband?"

11

Ethan had no answer.

But I did.

Since he thought I was too young and refused to share my bed, I would find him someone older.

It was too soon to take a concubine, so I'd start with a bed maid.

Once she had a child, I'd take it as my own. Everything would be perfectly proper.

As the mistress of the general's mansion, it was a grave mistake to have no children.

I wouldn't allow that to happen.

With this plan in mind, I quietly called Rose and Lily to my room.

I didn't want too many people to know. If word got out, who knew what rumors would spread.

So I only consulted my two most tight-lipped maids. I told them to find a few young women of good character to bring into the mansion.

We'd say they were to serve me.

The general's mansion probably wouldn't object.

That evening, when Ethan came back from his sword practice and heard about my plan, his eyes nearly popped out of his head.

I glanced at him. "My husband needn't be so happy. Taking concubines is inevitable. I'm just doing it a little early."

Ethan held up a hand. "Wait, wait, wait. Let me process this."

He licked his dry lips and repeated my words frantically. "You, a princess, my wife, have been married for one day, and you're already looking for a bed maid for me?"

I nodded. "Yes. But don't worry. Once she has a child, I'll make her a concubine. I'll give her a proper title."

Ethan scratched his head in agitation. "No, that's not it. Don't you even want to ask me about this?"

"You disagree? What man disagrees with taking concubines? They only complain about not having enough."

"I. Dis. Agree."

Ethan's voice was loud.

The maids in the outer room heard and tapped on the window. "Your Highness, is everything all right?"

"It's fine. I'm just talking with the general."

Ethan shouted, "It's not fine! Your mistress is trying to find me a bed maid! Do you know what that means? She's going to give me one of her maids to sleep with! You'd better run!"

12

Just then, my nanny happened to be passing by. She pushed the door open and came in.

"Your Highness, did I hear the general correctly?"

I was speechless.

I wanted to smash Ethan's head in, if I had the strength.

I hadn't wanted my nanny to know. If she knew, my parents would know.

Then I'd have to explain everything again.

I was worrying about how to smooth things over when Ethan smugly said, "I'll just be more moderate from now on. You don't have to push me onto other women. If outsiders find out, they'll say bad things about you."

My nanny agreed wholeheartedly. "The general is right. You've just been married. If word gets out that you're already looking for concubines and bed maids, it will reflect poorly on both of you and both families."

And just like that, my plan died before it could even begin.

That night, as I listened to Ethan humming tunelessly, I was furious.

Just as I was about to lose my temper, he came over and apologized.

"Alright, alright. Don't be angry. I wasn't trying to oppose you. I just think that as husband and wife, we should be monogamous."

"It *is* monogamous. I didn't say I was going to make her a co-wife. I just wanted to take a few concubines and find a few bed maids."

Ethan clutched his forehead. "Help! Claire, your feudal mindset is really hard to deal with."

"What mindset?"

He rolled his eyes.

As if he'd made a great decision, he pulled up a stool, sat down in front of me, and said in a low voice, "Can't it just be the two of us? No concubines?"

"No concubines? But you won't consummate the marriage. Where will the children come from?"

"Why do we need children?"

"To carry on the family line. You're a great general. Without children, who will inherit your title? Who will lead the army?"

I was desperate. "Given your nature, you won't want to retire in the capital. You'll want to be stationed at the border. Who knows what could happen there? What if something happens to you? Without a child to protect me, how will the Ethan clan treat me? Have you thought about that?"

Ethan was stunned.

He waved his hand in the air, stood up, and paced around the room.

Then he sat back down in front of me and lowered his voice. "How about this? We'll have children. You're still young. Wait two more years, until things are more stable. Then we'll have our own. We'll have several."

Before he could finish, his ears and the tips of his ears were red. He couldn't even look up.

I really wondered how he managed to kill people on the battlefield.

13

But I wasn't going to agree to his plan.

According to his timeline, he wouldn't share my bed until I was at least eighteen.

In the meantime, no concubines, no bed maids, no children.

And he wanted to go to the battlefield.

That meant accidents could happen at any time.

Even if there were no accidents, for the next two years, we'd be hounded by questions: "Why isn't there any news?"

From his parents and mine.

When that happened, would they blame him or me?

He had an answer for that too. "That's why I said I'll head north next month. If I'm not in the mansion, it's perfectly normal that there's no child."

I was so angry, my eyes were burning.

"You've been married for a month, and you're already rushing off to the battlefield. What will people think of me? What will they say? General Ethan, if you weren't happy with this marriage, you should have said so. I, Claire, am not without other options."

"I'm not unhappy! The thing is, that wasn't me at the time."

I looked at him coldly. "I didn't know the general was so good at shirking responsibility."

"I'm not! I didn't—"

I stopped talking. I turned around, lay down on the bed fully clothed, and pulled the covers over my face.

I felt Ethan stand by my bed for a long time.

Then he walked away, got his bedding, and spread it on the floor again.

"Claire, don't be angry. I've heard that if a woman goes to sleep angry, her eyelids will be swollen the next day. Tomorrow is the third-day visit. If your parents see that, they'll worry."

His reminder jolted me. Tomorrow was the third-day visit.

The gifts had already been prepared. I didn't need to worry about that.

But I did need to look my best. I couldn't let my parents suspect anything.

I turned over and looked at Ethan on the floor. "My husband, can you give me a straight answer? What are your true intentions regarding children?"

14

Ethan sat up too.

He looked at my eyes for a moment, then looked away.

"If I tell you, will you believe me?"

I didn't believe anything about him.

He changed his story every time. He was completely different from the person I'd investigated.

I suspected he was a fake Ethan.

But I needed to get information out of him, so of course I said, "Of course I believe you. You're my husband. From the day I married you, we became one. If I don't believe you, who can I believe?"

Ethan's eyes lit up.

He bit his lip and said seriously, "I'm really not from this world. Everything I said about transmigrating into a book yesterday was true."

I felt my brow furrow and quickly smoothed it.

"Possession?"

"No... well, sort of."

Ethan looked like he'd given up.

"The thing is, I know everything that's going to happen in this book."

He gestured. "Our marriage—the alliance between the prince's mansion and the general's mansion—is a trap."

I understood that much, and I perked up.

"Whose trap?"

"The Emperor and the Imperial Consort."

This time, I couldn't smooth my brow.

"Impossible. His Majesty has always been lenient with my family. The Imperial Consort is my aunt. She's close to us. How could she do such a thing?"

Ethan didn't get flustered. He sat cross-legged on his bedding, hands on his knees, back straight. "Don't get upset. Let me finish. If I'm wrong, you can argue with me."

I saw that he was straining his neck to talk to me. I patted the edge of the bed. "Sit here."

His face turned crimson again. His eyes darted away. "It's fine, I..."

15

Ethan finally came and sat on the edge of the bed.

His face was very red. His eyes seemed to have nowhere to go. They flitted from the washstand in the corner to the wedding decorations on the wall.

I was even more suspicious of his words.

But he spoke with great authority.

"The Empress is frail and has no children. She managed to raise a prince by her side, but he's not very bright, is he?"

I nodded. That was true. That's why the position of crown prince had been vacant for so long.

Ethan continued. "For the past two years, there have been rumors that the Imperial Consort's son might be named crown prince. But her son is too young."

I'd heard that too.

Of course, it wasn't surprising that the general's mansion knew such news.

But what Ethan said next truly shocked me.

"Your elder brother just turned twenty. He often goes in and out of the palace. The Emperor thinks highly of him."

This time, he didn't look away. He looked me straight in the eye. "The Emperor has probably hinted that he intends to pass the throne to him, hasn't he?"

He was too close. I reached out and covered his mouth.

My heart was pounding so fast it felt like it would leap out of my throat.

I looked around to make sure no one was eavesdropping, then turned back.

I glared at him. "Do you know that talk like that can get you killed?"

His face was as red as a shrimp. His lips were burning hot.

I couldn't hold it anymore.

I warned him, "Don't say such things again."

Ethan nodded quickly.

I took my hand back and wiped the moisture on his clothes.

Now even his eyes were burning.

16

I couldn't sit still under his gaze.

I got up and went to the outer room, telling Rose to brew a pot of tea.

While we waited for the tea, Ethan quietly finished his story.

"The Emperor didn't mean what he said to your brother. It was a test. Your family probably didn't believe it either. But the Imperial Consort is by the Emperor's side, and she doesn't believe that you don't believe it."

"She wants her son to inherit the throne. As long as your family exists, they are a threat to her. So she needs to get rid of your brother."

"Your brother is the male lead of the book. He won't die. But he's gentle and rule-abiding. He won't fight back unless his family is wiped out."

"So you know how it ends? This marriage is the beginning of the end. The Ethan family and the prince's mansion will be accused of treason and dragged into hell together."

Ethan looked at me. "According to the original plot, you and I won't survive either."

Even at a time like this, he could still joke. "So, my dear wife, do you still insist on finding me concubines and having children?"

When I heard Rose's footsteps approaching, I stopped the conversation.

I took the tea, went back inside, and poured a cup for each of us. I couldn't afford to be careless anymore.

Because what the Emperor had said to my brother was something only my father and I knew. Even my mother didn't know.

The conclusion we'd reached back then was the same as what Ethan had said today.

The Emperor was just testing us, to see if my father and brother had any ambition.

But I hadn't expected that even without ambition, he wouldn't let us go.

I lowered my voice even more. "Is there a way to change things?"

Ethan was silent for a long time.

I grew impatient. "If my father requests to be sent to his fief, and my brother stops going to the palace, will that help?"

"No. It'll make things worse."

He said it with certainty. "If you're in the capital, under the Emperor's nose, he's already watching you warily. If you request to go to your fief, he'll think you're about to rebel."

"Then what do we do? Is there no way to change it?"

17

Ethan's words filled me with despair again.

"The contents of the book are set. The broad strokes are probably impossible to change."

I couldn't sit still. I couldn't even drink my tea.

I paced the room, then gritted my teeth and made a decision. "We'll get a divorce."

Ethan spat out his tea.

"So rash? Just like that? Divorce?"

"Between life and death, and the destruction of our families, what is a marriage? Husband, thank you for telling me this. Tomorrow, when we go to my parents' house, I'll discuss it with my father immediately. We'll find a suitable reason..."

"Wait, wait, wait. I didn't say it was completely impossible to change."

I couldn't take any risks.

Treason was dangerous whether it was hidden or brought into the open. The mere mention of it would plant a seed of suspicion in the Emperor's mind. It would be a problem sooner or later.

Neither the prince's mansion nor the Ethan family could be destroyed because of this.

Now Ethan was the one who wasn't in a hurry. He kept telling me to wait, that he needed to think it through.

I didn't want to hear his thoughts. I told him to go to sleep so we could leave early tomorrow.

Ethan seemed obsessed. Long after I'd lain down, he was still muttering to himself:

"They said she'd love me like her own life, that she'd die for me. But before anything's even happened, she wants a divorce. Is this book even real?"

18

The matter was too big, too shocking.

I couldn't sleep.

Neither could Ethan.

After tossing and turning several times, he sat up again, rested his chin on the edge of the bed, and called out to me. "Claire, let's talk about this."

The moment I turned around, I met his eyes.

In the darkness of the unlit room, they shone like the brightest stars in the sky.

For a moment, I felt a strange sense of peace.

I didn't move. I just looked back at him. "What do you want to talk about?"

Ethan coughed lightly and looked away awkwardly. "Look. Now that I know what's going to happen, we can start changing things from now on."

"According to what you said earlier, the most important part of this trap is our marriage. Only by uniting the Ethan family and the prince's mansion can they create the strength of military and royal power, and only then can they have a reason to accuse us of treason. So divorce is the best option."

He sucked in a breath, as if he had a toothache.

"Hiss. But... we can look at it from a different angle."

"What angle?"

I pressed him. My persistence made Ethan agitated.

He got up and paced again. When he reached my bed, he suddenly bent down and pulled up the blanket that had slipped off me. "I'm just saying. Cover yourself. Don't catch a cold."

He was too close. His breath was hot on my neck.

I turned my head to move away, but just then, Ethan straightened up.

My lips brushed against his cheek.

In the candlelight, he froze completely. His face turned red as fast as a shrimp thrown into boiling water.

He stammered, "Wh-what are you doing? I told you, you're too young. It's not appropriate now..."

I pulled the blanket around me. "You said we could look at it from a different angle. What angle?"

Changing the subject seemed to relax Ethan a little.

He stood up straight and moved far away from me, as if afraid I might pounce on him.

His words were clear enough. "If we follow the original plot, we'll get the original ending. But if we don't follow the original plot, things might be different."

"Isn't divorce what you mean by not following the original plot?" I reminded him.

Ethan waved his hand impatiently. "Stop talking about divorce. It's not that big a deal. You don't have to solve everything with divorce."

I didn't want to interrupt his train of thought, so I kept quiet.

Ethan thought for a moment, then said, "The power that the Emperor and the Imperial Consort fear most right now is the military power in my hands and your brother."

"Here's what we do. Let's deal with my side first. Don't wait until next month. Tomorrow, after the third-day visit, you'll come with me to the border."

"What?"

I thought I'd misheard.

Ethan said, "They're afraid of the military power in my hands. As long as I stay in the capital, they'll find a way to get rid of me or take away my command. The only choice is to leave."

That made sense.

But for me, I'd grown up in the capital. I'd never been outside in my sixteen years. I didn't know what the world was like.

Besides, even if we left, my brother was still here.

Just as I was thinking that, Ethan started talking about him. "As for your brother, just let him become a monk."

19

That little scoundrel Ethan wasn't trying to solve the problem.

He was trying to insult my family.

I threw off the covers, got out of bed, and grabbed the feather duster from the table.

I was going to ask him what he was thinking.

Before I could even swing it, Ethan wrapped me up in a big bundle of blankets and put me back on the bed.

Feather duster and all.

"I told you, it's cold. Don't get cold. Why did you get up? Don't move. Let's talk nicely. No getting angry."

My hands were trapped in the blanket, which he was holding against his chest. I couldn't move.

After a few futile attempts, I wisely gave up.

"So we have to leave the capital, and my brother has to become a monk?"

"Which is more important? Your life, or all these empty formalities?"

As if afraid I'd get angry again, he quickly added, "There are other ways. But this one is simpler and more thorough. It gets to the root of the problem."

I had nothing to say.

If this was the only way to save both families, then of course we had to save our lives first.

We'd agreed. Tomorrow, after the third-day visit, we'd discuss it with my father immediately.

But in the middle of that night, someone came banging on the gate of the general's mansion.

Ethan heard the sound of servants running. He leaped up.

I didn't even see how he did it. He was already dressed.

"It's over. Things have started early. Claire, write a letter to your family. I'll be right back."

20

It was an imperial decree from the palace.

It said that bandits were rampant in the outskirts of the capital and had killed a government official. Ethan was to lead his men to suppress them immediately.

When he came back, he was relatively calm. He asked me first, "Did you write the letter?"

"Yes."

"Send it to the prince's mansion with your most trusted person. Don't let anything go wrong."

My maids wouldn't do. I called my personal guard.

When Ethan saw him, his face scrunched up. "Where was he hiding? I never saw him before."

"Outside the mansion. Who would dare put someone inside the general