Chapter 39: This servant is an attendant serving Your Highness. Since entering the palace, both thunderous punishments and gentle favors are heavenly grace.

“Your Highness!” Upon hearing Su Yingxue’s words, Qiushuang’s face turned pale. The scars from past floggings on her back seemed to burn anew. She immediately knelt and kowtowed.

“Your Highness, Her Highness the Eldest Princess, this servant is of lowly status. How could Your Highness speak such words because of me?”

Seeing this, Su Yingxue quickly rose to help her up, but Qiushuang refused to stand, kneeling before her with a pale yet resolutely firm expression.

She said, “Your Highness, this servant is of humble status. Her Highness the Eldest Princess is the radiant pearl of the Great Sheng Dynasty, a golden branch and jade leaf, noble and exalted.”

“This servant is merely an attendant serving Your Highness. Since entering the palace, both thunderous punishments and gentle favors are heavenly grace. Whether Your Highness rewards or punishes this servant, it is all willingly accepted.”

Su Yingxue already felt guilty, and upon hearing these words, her eyes instantly reddened. Her heart was a tumult of emotions. Reaching out to help Qiushuang up, tears fell, yet her voice had to remain solemn and cool to maintain the dignity of one in authority. Su Yingxue said, “Qiushuang, if that is so. This Palace commands you to rise. Will you obey?”

“Qiushuang respectfully obeys Your Highness’s command.” Hearing this, Qiushuang finally stood up, remaining by Su Yingxue’s side, still attending to her with utmost patience.

At that moment, a warm current surged in Su Yingxue’s heart. These were the four palace maids by her side—unwaveringly loyal and attending to her with meticulous care.

Zhang Susu sometimes wondered, what virtue or ability did she possess? Was it the constraints of the Great Sheng Dynasty’s system? Or was Su Yingxue truly blessed with an exceptionally fortunate destiny to have such devoted service?

“Qiushuang, let the past be past. From now on, as long as This Palace lives for one day, This Palace will protect the Princess’s Palace for one day.”

Su Yingxue looked at the tribute tea carefully prepared in the porcelain cup before her and said softly, “The debts of the past will be repaid to you all twofold in the future. In any case, This Palace understands your sincere efforts, Qiushuang.”

“Yes.” Qiushuang knelt to express gratitude.

Thus, for two consecutive weeks, Chu Xingchen attended morning lessons with Su Yingxue, listening to Mr. Qingming lecture on morning studies, poetry strategies, official histories, and classics. In the afternoons, they practiced archery at the drill ground.

It must be said, whether it was due to the specially crafted new bow and arrows, Chu Xingchen’s intentional or unintentional guidance, or Su Yingxue’s sudden enlightenment, her archery skills were steadily improving.

Now she could consistently hit the target, with one or two out of ten shots even reaching above the eighth ring. Even Mr. Liu recently praised her, saying, “Congratulations, Your Highness. At this rate, with another month of practice, Your Highness may pass the archery examination for admission to Juxian Elegant Lodge.”

While Mr. Liu praised Su Yingxue, Chu Xingchen stood nearby. These days, he wore one of the brocade robes she had sent to the side hall of the Princess’s Palace.

Chu Xingchen was clad in snow-white robes, like moonlight. Upon the pure white brocade were embroidered a few strokes of ink-bamboo patterns in faint ink hues.

Resplendent robes and jade hairpins adorned his ink-black hair. His brows and eyes held an aloofness, his expression cool and detached. Though he held the most inconspicuous status in the Great Sheng palace, an innate arrogance and noble defiance emanated from his very bones.

The Chu Xingchen of the past seemed like a frigid pool in a thousand-year ice cave, surrounded by a piercing coldness—stern, unsmiling, solemn, and distant.

But today, whether it was Su Yingxue’s misconception or not, when Mr. Liu praised her, she lifted her head and her peripheral gaze caught Chu Xingchen beside her. The corner of his mouth seemed to be slightly upturned at a stiff angle.

Could it be that he was smiling?

That shouldn’t be the case. Su Yingxue thought, given the grievances between Chu Xingchen and her, he must be resentful and dissatisfied because Mr. Liu had praised her but not him, causing his mouth to twitch.

“Thank you for your praise, sir.” Having received the compliment, Su Yingxue bowed lightly to Mr. Liu with joy. “Thanks to your diligent guidance these past days, I have benefited greatly and made progress. You have worked hard!”

“Qiushuang, send a reliable person back to the palace to fetch some compensation for the teacher’s efforts,” Su Yingxue arranged with a smile. After several polite refusals, Mr. Liu eventually accepted it graciously.

After all, Su Yingxue’s status was special. In the Great Sheng Dynasty, rewards from those of higher rank or status to those of lower official positions or humble backgrounds were almost never refused.

To refuse would be disrespectful. Moreover, Su Yingxue was the most esteemed Eldest Princess of the entire Great Sheng Dynasty.

After Mr. Liu left, Su Yingxue and Chu Xingchen continued to practice together.

For some reason, Chu Xingchen had also been practicing for two weeks straight. Whether it was due to his lax attitude toward practice or something else, his archery skills had shown no improvement these days, remaining just as they were when he first arrived. Even Mr. Liu couldn’t help but sigh after reviewing his performance.

After shooting several arrows in succession, Su Yingxue still remembered Chu Xingchen’s twitching mouth and thought, “This child is quite pitiable. He might feel unbalanced seeing me praised by the teacher.” She secretly glanced at Chu Xingchen, who was busy with archery practice not far away, and sighed.

The same teacher, the same practice—perhaps the difference lay in the bow and arrow in hand. Su Yingxue stared blankly at the bow she held, lost in thought, then waved her hand and gave instructions to Qiushuang.

A week later, before the noon lesson, Chu Xingchen rode in a carriage driven by a servant as usual to the drill ground to learn archery.

After the carriage came to a stop, Chu Xingchen stood up to disembark when the curtain was lifted from the outside by a pair of jade-white hands. Su Yingxue, smiling, supported herself on Qiushuang’s hand, stepped onto the carriage step, and climbed into the carriage, seating herself opposite him.

“Elder Sister, is there something you need?” Chu Xingchen had never imagined that Su Yingxue would set aside her dignity and enter his carriage today. After all, Su Yingxue was the Eldest Princess. If she wanted to see him, she only needed to send a palace attendant to summon him. Why would she need to board the carriage herself?

Moreover, this was the drill ground’s carriage park, where the carriages of all the military officers and soldiers stationed at the drill ground were parked, as well as those of the nobles, officials, and royal family members training in riding and archery here. Not to mention the numerous servants and guards in the carriage park—it could be said that spies from all factions were everywhere.

Currently, Su Yingxue was still the unmarried Eldest Princess. If word got out that she was sharing a carriage with an unrelated man before marriage, it could damage Su Yingxue’s reputation and chastity.

Wait, what was he thinking? Chu Xingchen suddenly came to his senses, a cold sneer appearing on his face. Reputation and chastity—how could a royal troublemaker like Su Yingxue even deserve such things?

Several years ago, this woman had already coveted Chu Xingchen’s striking appearance and wanted to take him into the princess’s residence to become a Male Consort. How could such a woman suddenly make him imagine she was one of those self-disciplined, refined, and elegant noble ladies from royal families described in books? Had Chu Xingchen gone mad?

At this thought, his eyes turned cold, and he inwardly sneered: How! Could! She! Be! Worthy!

Su Yingxue truly hadn’t considered so much. Recently, she had arranged for palace craftsmen to create a new bow and arrows according to Chu Xingchen’s physique and habits using the finest materials. As soon as they were ready, she immediately had Qiushuang bring them over.