Chapter 24: The Prince's Wife

She did not answer the Emperor that day.

She sat in the study with the lacquer tube open on the table and the lamp burning down.

Chengxiao sat across from her and did not say a word.

At last she said, "You've already decided."

"Yes."

"You'd refuse."

"I would. But I told your father I would not decide for you, and he made me say it twice."

She laughed, very softly.

"I know what the palace is," she said. "I was in it for one afternoon."

"I'd be watched in every room until I died."

"Yes."

"And you'd carry the throne for the rest of your life, because I was too frightened to say no."

"I would carry it," said Chengxiao. "I would not call it a sacrifice. But I would rather not."

"Then say what you want."

He took a moment.

"A house with a gate that I open myself. Your father at the table. A garden where nobody wants anything from us. And you."

"Not Empress."

"Not Empress. Wife."

"That I can do," Wanning said.

She wrote the answer herself, in her own plain hand, with a borrowed brush.

The Princess of Wei thanks His Majesty. The Prince of Wei remains the Prince of Wei.

She sealed it and gave it to the rider at dawn.

The Emperor sent no reply for three days.

On the fourth, a decree came naming his young cousin's son as heir, with a council of ministers to rule in his name.