Chapter 5: My Dear Princess

Cheng Xueyang hurried to say, "The child is just speaking nonsense; do not take it to heart."

Gu Mo tightened his grip on Cheng Xueyang, "She looks so much like you, Your Highness. She is my—"

"It has nothing to do with you!"

Panic flared in Cheng Xueyang. She grabbed Gu Mo’s arm, trying to pry him away. "Gu Mo, who do you think you are? Do you think that with a mere crook of your finger, I would crawl back to your side like a dog as I once did? I don't want you anymore. Xuanxuan is mine; no one is going to take her away!"

Drip.

Tears fell like a burst floodgate, unstoppable, soaking Gu Mo’s sleeves and the back of his hands.

Gu Mo’s hands trembled slightly, and he loosened his hold on Cheng Xueyang. "Don't cry."

Cheng Xueyang retorted, "Who is crying! I am Princess Xuanyun, bestowed by the Emperor himself. How could I possibly cry? My dignity does not allow me to do anything so demeaning."

Gu Mo let go of her completely.

Cheng Xueyang wiped the tears from her face. "Gu Mo, I have my pride. Since you gave Princess Yunxiang those sesame cakes, I have given up on the cakes as well. From now on, do not appear before me."

Cheng Xueyang turned back toward the door.

Watching her retreating figure, Gu Mo muttered to himself, "I never gave her anything."

As Cheng Xueyang closed the door, she heard Gu Mo add, "I will find a way to resolve the matter of the political marriage."

Outside the restaurant, two groups of men stood in a tense standoff. Both sides had sustained injuries; it seemed they had clashed. With these two groups of fierce-looking men at the entrance, passersby stayed far away, terrified of becoming collateral damage.

As Cheng Xueyang stepped out, she immediately recognized her own secret guards.

"What is going on?"

Ying Yi, the leader of the secret guards, replied with a cold face, "We ran into some troublemakers." He cast a sidelong glance at the opposing group.

Cheng Xueyang knew the capabilities of her guards; for the others to have held them off, they clearly possessed some skill.

Gu Mo emerged from inside. The opposing men greeted him in unison, "Greetings, My Lord!"

"Disperse."

At Gu Mo’s command, they left swiftly.

Gu Mo shifted his gaze to Cheng Xueyang. "I merely wished to have a quiet word with Your Highness, which is why I cleared away your men. My apologies for the offense."

He admitted it quite readily.

Cheng Xueyang said, "I should actually thank you, Lord Gu. Otherwise, I wouldn't have known that my men are in need of improvement."

The secret guards hung their heads in shame.

Gu Mo replied, "My guards are recruited from the military camps, so their skills are perhaps a bit better than the average person."

Cheng Xueyang stared resentfully at the "average person." "Go back and increase your training."

"Yes!" the guards replied.

Gu Mo walked toward the carriage. "Your Highness, please."

Cheng Xueyang scoffed, "What? Have you become addicted to being a coachman?"

Gu Mo replied, "I like to finish what I start."

Cheng Xueyang snorted but eventually boarded the carriage.

Her secret guards and Gu Mo’s men followed in the shadows. When the carriage reached the Princess’s estate, Gu Mo extended his hand to her again. "I ask that Your Highness does not refuse."

Cheng Xueyang stood on the carriage, scanning the surrounding vendors and pedestrians; many were spies planted by various factions. News of the Prime Minister and the Princess acting so intimately would surely spread like wildfire.

Cheng Xueyang asked, "Do you really intend to do this? Have you considered your career?"

Gu Mo smiled faintly. "I am already the Prime Minister; there is nowhere higher to go."

Truth be told, Gu Mo was exceptionally handsome, and his smile was even more charming, despite the fact that he was already a thirty-year-old man.

*Pfft—*

Cheng Xueyang couldn't help but chuckle as she placed her hand in Gu Mo’s. "Older men truly know how to be attentive."

Gu Mo frowned. Was she calling him old?

Cheng Xueyang pulled her hand back, looking into the distance, and laughed lightly. "Still, a young, pretty face is more pleasing to the eye."

Cheers erupted from the entrance of the Princess’s estate.

"Mother! Mother!"

"My dear Princess!"

Cheng Xueyang stepped forward to greet them. "Walk slowly; don't fall."

The mischievous child was riding on Yun Huai’an’s shoulders. Yun Huai’an held a bouquet of flowers, and the two of them, stacked high, rushed toward Cheng Xueyang.

When they reached her, Yun Huai’an knelt on one knee and offered the flowers. "Beautiful flowers for my dear Princess."

Xuanxuan remained as steady as a mountain; the running and kneeling hadn't dislodged her. She laughed joyfully, "Take them, hurry, take them! Xuanxuan helped Father, too."

This was a bold display of affection in full view of everyone.

Cheng Xueyang didn't need to turn around to know that among the many gazes, one was from Gu Mo.

Cheng Xueyang took the bouquet from Yun Huai’an and pinched his cheek, which was softer than a woman’s. "You don't study; you just stir up trouble."

Yun Huai’an kissed her fingertips in response, smiling wickedly. "I guarantee I will be the top scholar, and then I will marry the Princess with all the grandeur she deserves. Careers and such are not even worth a toe of the Princess."

Ignoring the triumphant Yun Huai’an, Cheng Xueyang picked up Xuanxuan. "Let's go inside."

Yun Huai’an rose, cast a provocative glance at Gu Mo, and followed Cheng Xueyang into the estate.

Xuanxuan leaned over Cheng Xueyang’s shoulder, made a face at Gu Mo, and shouted, "Xuanxuan has a father now, I won't acknowledge you! Heartbreaker!"

Cheng Xueyang hurriedly covered Xuanxuan’s mouth. "My dear, stop shouting. Before noon, the entire capital will know that Princess Xuanyun has a child and keeps a pretty boy, and that the child’s father is the Prime Minister."

A headache loomed.

Everything had been agreed upon before she returned, yet as soon as she arrived, she had caused such a stir. She shouldn't have been drinking to drown her sorrows when Xuanxuan asked about her biological father; once drunk, she had let it all slip.

Sure enough, the whole capital was in an uproar.

The story of how Princess Xuanyun had once pursued Gu Mo was dug up again. The incident of the Prime Minister coming to seek reconciliation and being rejected by the Princess was dissected and sensationalized over and over.

The version women loved to hear: *Today you ignore me, tomorrow I will make you regret it.*

The version men loved to hear: *The all-powerful Prime Minister has been cuckolded! And his own daughter doesn't even love him!*

In a palace chamber, Princess Yunxiang, Cheng Liuyi, smashed the Li-style sesame cakes to the ground in a fit of rage, feeling as though she had been slapped in public. She had known Cheng Xueyang loved those cakes and had staged that scene to make her think Gu Mo cared for her.

And yet, look at the result.

Cheng Xueyang and Gu Mo had a child that old!

She had acted like a clown and humiliated herself; Cheng Xueyang must be laughing at her!

Concubine Xiang entered, saw Cheng Liuyi throwing a tantrum, and comforted her. "Princess Xuanyun having a child out of wedlock is a disgrace to the royal family. It is she who faces disaster, not you."

"Enough, anger harms the body. The Emperor has already promised me regarding the marriage; regardless of Gu Mo’s past, once the imperial decree is issued, he must marry you."

At the post house, Wugexi had a portrait of Princess Xuanyun added to his collection alongside Princess Yunxiang’s. He had a knife wound on his shoulder that had been treated, but it still throbbed with pain, turning his lust for the beauty into hatred for the man.

*Gu Mo, just you wait.*

*I will get my hands on Cheng Xueyang sooner or later.*