Chapter 1: Pen Pals Across Time and Space
“A girl grows up and eventually marries. Do you intend to stay by your mother’s side forever?! Marrying the Crown Prince of Daying is your good fortune. Your father is doing this for your own good!”
“A marriage alliance offers a chance at a peaceful life, certainly better than being trapped in this cold palace with my mother, waiting for the kingdom to fall and be subjected to humiliation…”
“Ha! Beiliao dares to send a dying, consumptive wretch!”
“Well, she is a true princess with royal blood. A pity. If Beiliao’s eldest princess, Xiao Linghan, hadn’t died in battle, I might have been interested in taking her as a concubine.”
“As for this frail ‘sickly beauty’, just settle her in Wangmei Pavilion and let her live or die as fate dictates.”
…
A winter morning in Daying, Wangmei Pavilion.
A cold wind howled. Even with the doors tightly shut, the biting chill still seeped inside.
“Cough… cough… cough…”
Xiao Luohan awoke from a nightmare with a start. Perhaps because she’d woken so abruptly, she felt a sweet, metallic taste rise in her throat. Covering her mouth, she was seized by a violent coughing fit.
When the coughing subsided and the images of her dream faded, she put away the white handkerchief stained with blood. Lowering her long, thick eyelashes, her gaze fell upon the pale gold book at her bedside.
For the umpteenth time, Xiao Luohan picked up the small, palm-sized book, her fingertips gently stroking its leather-like, brown cover.
The day after she arrived in Daying for the marriage alliance and was settled in Wangmei Pavilion, this book had appeared beside her pillow as if out of thin air. The wear on the cover suggested it had been used for quite some time.
What surprised her most was that only she could see and touch it. She’d witnessed with her own eyes the palace maid assigned to her care reach right through the book while making the bed!
Although her mother had warned her since childhood never to touch objects potentially tainted by ghosts or spirits – lest her illness worsen – Xiao Luohan desperately wanted to understand what this book was.
She resisted for three days. Finally, she resolved to open the book, hoping to glean some information about its original owner.
What she found instead were words and symbols she’d never seen before:
【August 9th. I absolutely do not want to review math during summer vacation! Besides, what do those extra-difficult problems meant for the top 3% of students have to do with me?!】
【But my older sister bribed me with allowance money. 200 for each challenging problem I solve… Fine. Gotta work hard for the cash!!】
【September 30th. My period came and knocked me out. Ibuprofen, my best friend QAQ. Must remember this! Next time, take the medicine before it hits!!】
【November 25th. The last mock exam before finals. Apparently, the questions are from that sadistic school (eye roll) whose tests always manage to drag down the entire grade’s average score.】
【But I think I’m finally starting to figure out the test-maker’s tricks! Gotta say, my sister is amazing!! All hail my sister!!】
…
Xiao Luohan had only wanted to satisfy her curiosity, but the more she read, the more astonished she became.
She couldn’t fathom what kind of kingdom the book’s owner lived in, nor could she understand most of the words and symbols.
Yet she continued reading.
Wangmei Pavilion held a modest collection of books, but most were titles like Lessons for Women and Women’s Precepts, filled with tedious instructions on serving a husband and raising children. She loathed them.
This book, dropped by some unknown ghost or spirit, was far more intriguing. With just a few lines, it captured her interest.
Her curiosity, instead of being satisfied, grew with every new entry in the book.
In the end, Xiao Luohan had to force herself to stop. If she continued, she wouldn’t be able to resist taking up a brush and asking the book’s owner for explanations.
She wanted to know more about this strange and fascinating world.
After pondering for half a day, and carefully reviewing the remaining contents while she considered, Xiao Luohan tucked the book carefully into her robes and called for a servant.
“Prepare offerings for the spirits.”
She would immediately make an offering to the book’s owner and attempt to make contact.
“Holy crap?!?”
On a winter afternoon, in the quiet of a self-study period in Class 7, a startled cry suddenly erupted from the back of the classroom. Several students turned their heads in surprise.
The source of the commotion – Jiang Xue, sitting alone by the window in the last row – pretended to be calm, casually smoothing her hair and flipping through her history textbook.
In reality, her mind was blank. She glanced repeatedly at the diary hidden beneath her textbook, her heart thump-thump-thumping double-time.
It was broad daylight, and yet she’d seen a ghost!
Just now, a line of characters written in brushstrokes had appeared on her diary out of nowhere!
Jiang Xue was certain this wasn’t a prank. The brushstrokes were freshly written. She’d accidentally brushed against them, and her fingertip was now smudged with black ink!
Weird… So weird! Was she dreaming?
She quickly wiped off the ink, steadied herself, and pinched herself hard, wincing at the pain. Only then did she summon the courage to carefully examine the brushstrokes.
The characters were traditional Chinese, written vertically in neat columns, but without any punctuation. The scent of ink seemed to carry a faint fragrance of plum blossoms.
Quite elegant. However, the content left her completely baffled:
【What manner of ghost or spirit are you?】
“I’d like to ask you what kind of ghost you are!” she muttered to herself, picking up a pen and pressing it against her cheek as she thought.
When Jiang Xue was very young, she’d fantasized about a day when another person’s writing would suddenly appear in her diary, and she could happily chat with this person, sharing her daily life and worries, becoming pen pals.
She never expected that, years later, this pen pal would actually appear, in this incredibly bizarre, supernatural way.
She took several deep breaths, forcing herself to calm down, staring at the brushstrokes as she began to analyze the situation.
First, she was certain she wasn’t dreaming. This was really happening.
Maybe a real ghost was right beside her, or maybe some unknown force had turned her diary into a conduit across time and space. After all, these unpunctuated, traditional Chinese characters written with a brush looked like something only ancient people would write.
Second, this meant she needed to make a decision quickly – respond, or ignore.
After a minute of deliberation, Jiang Xue made up her mind and uncapped her pen:
【I’m not a ghost or spirit. I’m a living person!】
【How much of my diary have you read?】
Siling Foreign Language School strictly prohibited cell phones. If a teacher caught you with one, it would be confiscated until the end of the semester.
Whenever Jiang Xue had a complaint or something to rant about during class or study time, she would jot it down in her diary. Over time, this had become a habit, and she’d unknowingly kept it up.
The other party seemed to be waiting for her response, as new brushstrokes quickly appeared in the diary:
【If you are referring to the contents of the book, all of it.】
Jiang Xue: !!!
All of it?!
That meant all her random ramblings from her first year of high school until now had been read!
Yet, instead of feeling angry, she was thrilled.
If they were going to be pen pals, it was better that they’d read everything!
As her excitement bubbled, more brushstrokes appeared:
【I apologize for reading your book without permission. It won’t happen again.】
“Why apologize?” Jiang Xue thought. “It’s not like it’s anything I’m ashamed of.”
She thought it, but what she wrote was: 【An apology isn’t enough. You have to compensate me. Tell me your name, age, and whether you’re male or female.】
This was the most basic information. If the other party also wanted to chat, they would answer.
As for whether the answers were true, Jiang Xue didn’t care. Anything to spice up the monotony of her senior year!
It was commonly said that ghosts and monsters were experts at deceiving people’s hearts. There were even rumors that if someone called your name on a road late at night, you should never answer.
However, Xiao Luohan wasn’t afraid.
With her frail body and limited time left, she wasn’t concerned about provoking evil spirits.
Since the ghost or spirit could deliver the book to her pillow, it must already know everything about her. This question must be a test of her sincerity.
【My name is Xiao Luohan. I am seventeen years old, the third princess of Beiliao.】
Amidst the lingering scent of sandalwood incense, she answered earnestly, with a sincere heart.
【Whoa?! You’re a princess?!】
【I’m Jiang Xue, also seventeen, and a female student.】
Slender ink characters quickly appeared. Though the spirit had demanded “compensation” from her, it had also offered its own introduction.
【Your Highness, after reading my diary, don’t you have any questions?】
【Anything you’re curious about, about the people or things I care about, I’ll tell you!】
It even addressed her as “Your Highness,” but without a hint of deference in the tone. The feeling she got… was like a little deer leaping playfully.
This put Xiao Luohan at ease, but she didn’t reply immediately. Instead, she set down her brush and carefully recalled what she’d read.
After a long while, she finally responded:
【The subjects you study are vastly different from what I know.】
【Only men are allowed to peruse books freely. Women also have lessons, but they are limited to the “Four Books for Women” and needlework.】
Although Xiao Luohan had lived in her mother, Consort Ning’s cold palace since she could remember, she wasn’t entirely isolated from the outside world.
She knew that ministers with daughters would occasionally send them to private schools or hire tutors to come to their homes. However, no “female student” had ever been like Jiang Xue – besides playing instruments, calligraphy, painting, and chess, everything else they studied was merely touched upon superficially.
She had once asked her mother about this.
Her mother had simply sighed and said those weren’t subjects for women to learn.
Knowing too much would make a woman “restless” and unsatisfied with her domestic role. If she truly ventured “out” into the world, there would be no place for a woman to stand.
“Not even like Eldest Sister Linghan?” she had asked, unwilling to accept this.
“Princess Zhemei came from a military family. Her mother is the Empress, and her maternal clan is His Majesty’s most trusted support. That is why she was allowed to gallop across the battlefield.” Her mother sighed. “But even though she has achieved great merit in war, it is your second brother who is His Majesty’s chosen heir to the Beiliao throne.”
“But Second Brother isn’t as capable as Eldest Sister in any way…”
“That is a woman’s fate.” Her mother had placed her hand on Xiao Luohan’s and shaken her head, refusing to say more on the subject.
【Those women’s lessons you mentioned have long been buried in the river of history!】
The newly appeared words jolted Xiao Luohan back to the present.
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