Chapter 10 — I was once traded for, then became someone they couldn't reach for the rest of my life

Or maybe because of tears. Ta Van So held those pages tightly. My heart felt like it was being squeezed by an invisible hand. He looked towards the wooden box placed in the corner of the room. Inside is empty. Images suddenly appeared in his head. The day she was taken to the side door of Ta palace. She just walked silently. The day Giang Nguyet Bach humiliated her in front of everyone. She didn't cry. The day he admitted that because of Giang Nguyet Bach's dream of being the Queen, he cut General Tran Quoc's military salary. She just looked at him. Then ask a question. A sentence that he thought he could never forget for the rest of his life.

“Ta Van So.”

“Are you really that cruel?”

Is he really that cruel? Why could he hurt another person that year because of one person? Why can he see Giang Nguyet Bach's gentleness, but he has never seen Ly Trieu Ca's quiet waiting? Until it's gone. He just knew. The woman is always behind him. Step by step, I have entered his heart without even realizing it. Ta Van So slowly knelt down. This is the first time. For the first time, he called her by her true identity in his heart.

“Madam…”

The room was silent. No one smiled back at him. No one poured him a cup of hot tea. There was no one standing under the light waiting for him to return. Only his own painful gasps remained. He held the unfinished cloak in his arms. Lord Ta's always straight shoulders finally collapsed. Outsiders say Ta Van So was noble all his life, never bowing his head. But no one knows. That night. In the small room that once belonged to Ly Trieu Ca. He embraced some of the late love that he had lost. Cry until you can't make a sound. After the big wedding was scheduled, every day the general's palace had people from the Eastern Palace bringing gifts. Sometimes it's Jiangnan brocade, sometimes it's Western Region pearls, sometimes it's precious boxes of lipstick that women in the capital may not be able to buy with money. Trieu Viet seems to really want to use all the best things in the world to prove to me that he regrets it. But we returned all those things. I do not lack wealth. There is no shortage of pearls. There's no shortage of a man who doesn't remember to cherish until he loses it. That day, I was with my assistant in the palace checking the bride price list and the border military report when there was a noise outside. A Chieu hurriedly walked in, his face unsightly:

“Miss, Lord Ta is here.”

I put down my pen. Before he could say anything, a eunuch's voice rang out in the yard, loudly announcing:

“Your Highness the Crown Prince bids.”

I frowned slightly. Someone wants to marry me. Someone wants to keep me. The two men who once never asked me if I was in pain or not, now appeared together at the door of the general's palace. It's really funny. I stood up and went out. In the yard, Ta Van So wore a light blue robe, his face was pale, and his body still looked haggard after many days of insomnia. Not far away, Trieu Viet was wearing a royal prince's robe, his eyebrows suppressing his unhappiness. The two of them saw me coming out and walked over almost at the same time. Trieu Viet opened his mouth first:

“Trieu Ca, I heard that he came to the general's palace to bother you, so I specially came to see.”

Ta Van So looked at me, his voice hoarse:

“Trieu Ca, I point I want to say a few words to you.”

Trieu Viet's face was cold:

“Ta Van So, you are about to become my Crown Princess. What qualifications do you have to come see her?”

Ta Van So clenched his hands.

"Your Highness, don't forget. If you hadn't personally given her to me, she wouldn't have had to endure so much resentment."

Trieu Viet's eyes immediately darkened.

“You also deserve to mention this? I gave her to you, but you left her at the side door, let her live in an abandoned yard, and let Giang Nguyet Bach humiliate her at will."

Ta Van So's face turned pale after being talked about, but he still did not back down.

“I was wrong, so I want to make up for it.”

He looked towards me, his eyes filled with pain.

“Trieu Ca, please come back with me. I will hand over the entire Ta palace to you, will completely break up with Giang Nguyet Bach, and will not let you suffer any more wrongs."

Trieu Viet smiled coldly.

“Compensate? What do you have to compensate?

He turned to look at me, his voice immediately calmed down.

“Trieu Ca, as long as you enter the Eastern Palace, I can give you the posthumous throne. The day after she ascends the throne, she is her only Queen."

Someone said he could give me the aftertaste. One person said he would spend his whole life making up for it. If it were another woman, perhaps she would be touched. But I just feel tired. Because from beginning to end, they still see me as something that can be chosen, fought for, rewarded, and reclaimed. I looked at the two people in front of me. Someone once used me to exchange for Giang Nguyet Bach. A person who, for Giang Nguyet Bach, put my father's life on the chessboard. Now they stand in front of me again, saying love, saying regret, saying compensation. I suddenly burst out laughing. That laugh was very light, but enough to make the whole yard quiet.

“The day you switched me back and forth.”

“Have you ever asked me a question?”

“Do I want to be with someone?”

Trieu Viet paused. Ta Van So also stiffened in place.