Chapter 3 — Princess Chieu Ninh Chooses Her Imperial Husband

Her voice rose, and the palace staff outside the door all looked over. I had no patience for her self-pity. "I asked her if she knew." She bit her lip. Her expression answered me. I nodded. "I know." Tham Thanh Duong panicked and stood up. "Princess, I didn't mean to hide it from you. Later that day, Ta Chiet Ngoc told me that he was afraid you would draw too much attention and that the queen would hate you. He said you only needed to yield once, and that it was for your own good." I laughed. But my chest felt like someone had inserted a needle into it, the end of the needle still vibrating slightly. Tham Thanh Duong cried. "Princess, you were born with everything, just a bow, why do you have to remember it for so long?" I stood up and walked in front of her. She was half an inch shorter than me. Tears hung from her lashes, making her look pitiful. I reached out and took the small pure gold bow from her hair. The brooch passed through the bun, pulling a few strands of hair haphazardly. She quickly called out: "Princess!" I placed the small bow in the palm of my hand. It was very light, nothing like the burden that had weighed me down for so many years. I said: "You are wrong. The bow is not what I remember." I looked into her eyes. "I could have won, but the person I trusted most pressed my hand down. Then you expected me to thank you." Tham Thanh Duong's face turned pale. I returned the brooch to her. "Take it." She didn't dare accept it. I let go. The little gold bow fell to the floor with a clear chime. Outside the door came the sound of hurried footsteps. Ta Chiet Ngoc stood outside the door. His gaze fell first on the small bow on the ground, then lifted to my face. Tham Thanh Duong seemed to have caught a lifeline. "Ta Chiet Ngoc, princess..." Ta Chiet Ngoc did not look at her. He looked at me, his throat moving. "A Lenh, you already know?" I said: "Yes." The color drained from his face. I slowly opened my mouth. "Ta Chiet Ngoc, I did not miss that arrow." His eyelashes trembled. I said: "You stole my victory from me."
My words pinned Ta Chiet Ngoc to the palace door. Tham Thanh Duong was still crying, her shoulders shaking. Before, he would have helped her first. He had always helped the weaker person first, then turned to tell me the truth. But this time, he did not move. He just looked at me. "A Lenh, I did not mean to steal." "So what do you want to do?" He opened his mouth. I spoke for him: "You want me to listen." Ta Chiet Ngoc's face became unsightly. "No." He took one step forward. "He wants me to stop arguing, not make noise, and stop making his mother unhappy. He wants to see me become a suitable princess, and he also wants me to always trust him." His voice was low. "I'm just afraid she'll get hurt." "Am I injured?" I raised my wrist, revealing thin white flesh. "There are no injuries here, does that mean it doesn't count?" Ta Chiet Ngoc's eyes fell on my wrist, his eyes reddened. I lowered my sleeve. "Over those years, every time I gave in, it felt like my heart was cut. He stood next to me and looked at me, even praising me for my understanding." He could not say anything. Tham Thanh Duong suddenly spoke. "Princess, these years, Ta Chiet Ngoc has treated you poorly." I turned my head to look at her. She pulled back, but still gritted her teeth and continued. "If it weren't for him, you would have been hated by the queen long ago. Now that you are turning old grievances against him, aren't you only making your own heart colder?" I looked at her for a moment. "Are you afraid that he will regret it?" Tham Thanh Duong's pupils shrank. Finally, Ta Chiet Ngoc also looked at her. "Thanh Duong." With just two words, her face turned completely white. I laughed. I realized that she knew fear as well. I was afraid that little bow was not a symbol of glory, but proof that the dignity Ta Chiet Ngoc had protected for her had been taken from someone else. "Tham Thanh Duong, please go home." She refused. "Princess..." I interrupted her. "If you still do not go, I will have someone bring out the target from that competition and ask everyone why, with the wind unchanged and the target a hundred paces away, my arrow alone had missed by an inch." Tham Thanh Duong's legs were weak, holding onto the corner of the table. Ta Chiet Ngoc said in a deep voice: "That's enough." Ta Chiet Ngoc still protected her. He gritted his teeth. "I did this, it has nothing to do with her." He was still protecting her. My heart remained still. When disappointment runs deep, even thorns can no longer pierce the heart. "Okay." I nodded. "Then I'll just ask you." Ta Chiet Ngoc looked at me. I said: "If you faced the same choice again, would you still press my hand down?" He was silent. The wind outside the temple blew in, and the lights swayed once. He wanted to answer no. I could see it. But he knew very well why he did that year. Not entirely for my sake. He was afraid that after I won, he would be overshadowed, that my mother would scold me, that I would no longer depend on his words, and that one day I would no longer need him to show me the way. He hid those thoughts in his sentence because he believed he was protecting me. He hid them for so long that he even believed them. Ta Chiet Ngoc closed his eyes. "Then perhaps we have nothing more to say."