(5) A Storm in the Shen Household

In truth, Ziyuan's injuries, only just beginning to ease, had flared up again worse than before from all of Yinglan's commotion, and what he needed most just now was simply "rest." It was not that he meant deliberately to hold Shenya at arm's length — but Shenya, too, was no one's idea of a thoughtful soul. She had grown up in the great and wealthy Shen household, a family with many sons and few daughters, where every girl was treasured like a jewel; a good long stretch passed after her birth before a younger sister came along at last, and so she had been raised in comfort and indulgence her whole life, with everyone else looking out for her and she for no one. From childhood she had wanted for nothing, and had even once used her own willfulness and bullying to force the family elders to plead and press the Celestial Sovereign on her behalf until he relented and betrothed her to Ziyuan — how could such a woman possibly understand consideration for others? Watching Ziyuan just now speak so gently to soothe Yinglan, and now not even sparing her a glance, her heart filled with resentment; she performed a proper bow and withdrew in indignation.

　　Seething with pent-up anger, Shenya returned to her own courtyard, and Xiang'er, sensing her fury from a good distance off, deliberately sent the other attendants away and crept forward, stooped low, to greet her.

　　"Has my lady returned?" Having heard that Ziyuan had taken two strokes of the God-Smiting Whip and, feeling unwell, had been helped back to his chamber by Changxiu, Shenya had rushed there at once — but since her destination was the Crown Prince's own bedchamber, Xiang'er had had the good sense not to follow. No one was permitted to enter the Crown Prince's chamber, not even the Crown Prince's consort herself without express leave — how would Xiang'er ever dare overstep that line?

　　"Are you laughing at my misfortune?" With a bellyful of fury and nowhere to spend it, Shenya was in no mood to show mercy to whatever poor soul had wandered into her path.

　　"I would never, my lady." Having half expected Shenya would take her temper out on her, Xiang'er could only bow and scrape and try to placate her, bending even lower.

　　"How would you never? You knew perfectly well I'd be sent packing, didn't you? Sitting here waiting to enjoy the show?" Three questions in a row, one after another, were enough to make Xiang'er's knees give out entirely, and she dropped at once to the floor.

　　"Please, my lady, calm your anger! I would never dare such a thing!" Xiang'er said, knocking her head against the ground several times as she spoke.

　　"What did I ever do to deserve this? Ziyuan is kind to everyone in this world except me — I am supposed to be his wife, and yet somehow I'm the only outsider in his household." As she spoke, she swept her arm across the table, sending everything on it crashing to the floor.

　　"My lady..." With the things from the table shattered across the ground, Xiang'er's face went even paler. She had not gone along to His Highness's chamber, so she had no idea what had actually happened there — but her mistress's temper she knew all too well.

　　"What use are you, besides calling me 'my lady'?"

　　"This servant... this servant... failed to serve my lady properly... it is this servant's fault... this servant's fault..." Xiang'er remained prostrate on the floor, not daring to rise. And yet even such abject submission did nothing to lessen Shenya's fury.

　　The more Shenya spoke, the angrier she grew, until suddenly she turned and strode toward the door, and Xiang'er, seeing this, scrambled up to follow.

　　"Get out of my way! Stop hovering in front of me, the sight of you only makes me angrier!" With that, she strode off without another word, leaving Xiang'er unsure whether to follow or stay behind.

　　"I am going back to the Shen household. There's no need for you to come."

　　Hearing this, Xiang'er breathed a sigh of relief. If her mistress was only going back to her own family's house, nothing much could go wrong even without her there; she let out a quiet breath, rose, and began setting the scattered things back in order, while Shenya, still fuming, made her way straight back to the Shen household.

　　It must simply have been an unlucky day for Shenya — she had not thought to consult the signs before setting out, and had no way of knowing that her elder brother Shenyu happened, just then, to be home as well. Shenyu, still raw with distress over having struck Ziyuan with the whip twice, wore a face already grim by nature now darkened further still, and sat brooding in the main hall. The household staff, seeing this, scattered out of his way — a member of the Celestial Clan, and yet he had made himself as forbidding as a lord of the underworld, feared by mortals and spirits alike. Of all the ill timing, Shenya chose this very moment to storm back into the Shen household with a head full of anger, and so the two of them, each already primed for a fight, collided head-on, and the main hall of the Shen household grew thick at once with brewing storm clouds.

　　No sooner had Shenya walked in than Shenyu's temper flared, and he snapped at her: "What time do you think this is? His Highness lies injured, and instead of staying by his side at Cize Hall you come running back here — have you no sense at all, being the Crown Prince's consort?"

　　In truth there was nothing at all wrong with Shenyu's reproach — viewed objectively, it was a perfectly reasonable expectation. Unfortunately, Shenya, having just now badly misread Ziyuan's intentions, had worked herself into a fit of self-inflicted grievance that had robbed her of all reason; she had meant to go home and pour out her troubles to her mother for comfort, only to run into this towering presence of an elder brother before she ever reached her mother. Her brother was famously incorruptible and unmovable, swayed by nothing — only right and wrong mattered to him, never kinship, rank, or standing.

　　Even granting that Shenya had no real power to help Ziyuan in any substantive way, she still ought not to have abandoned her injured husband and run off home on her own.

　　"What do you know? His Highness doesn't want my care in the least. The moment Yinglan arrives he dotes on her without limit; toward me he can barely be bothered, as if I'm nothing but a nuisance while he recovers. Who, exactly, is supposed to be his wife?" Scolded by Shenyu, Shenya raised her own voice right back at him.

　　"You go too far — are you truly jealous of the Eleventh Princess now? After everything that's happened, of course the Princess came to visit and give thanks — that's only natural. She is His Highness's own little sister, and you begrudge her even that? Such a narrow, petty heart in the Crown Prince's own consort — how could you ever be a fit match for a man whose heart holds the whole world? All you do is hold him back!"

　　"And who are you to talk, calling yourself my brother while saying such things about your own sister? What good does it do you to talk about me like this? His Highness's heart holds the whole world, and it's just my rotten luck I'm not part of that 'whole world' — he's good to everyone except me..."

　　"Enough!"

　　Shenyu was beyond furious now; to him, Shenya was simply beyond all reason. Back when this sister of his had insisted, against all advice, on marrying Ziyuan, he himself had been against it — a man of such open-hearted magnanimity and extraordinary bearing as the Crown Prince, and their own family's spoiled, unreasonable sister was meant to be his match? If Shenyu's feelings toward the Celestial Sovereign were reverent awe, then toward the Crown Prince they were nothing short of wholehearted admiration. Looking across the entire Celestial Clan, Ziyuan was the only one who had ever truly won his respect, and for a man of such rare quality to marry Shenya felt, to him, like a living waste. Shenya was his sister, and yet in his heart he genuinely felt the injustice of it on Ziyuan's behalf. He had voiced his objections back then, but they had carried little weight before the family elders — the whole clan had agreed it took blessings accumulated over untold lifetimes for the Shen family to win such a match; and besides, the Crown Prince was, in the hearts of the Celestial Clan, the one destined to succeed the Celestial Sovereign, so that if Ziyuan should one day become the next Sovereign, their own daughter would in turn naturally become Celestial Empress, elevating the Shen family to unimaginable glory — and so they had pressed the Celestial Sovereign with everything they had, and turned around to press Ziyuan again and again, until at last, through every twist and turn, the marriage had been settled.

　　That the Crown Prince had no wish to marry Shenya was plain for anyone to see — but who in the Shen family, besides Shenyu, had ever given it a second thought?

　　"I warned you back then that a melon forced off the vine is never sweet, and you wouldn't listen — so what is there to complain about now? And besides, given His Highness's temperament, having taken you as his consort, even if he holds no fondness for you he would never mistreat you either. Judging by all this talk behind his back, the problem is entirely your own — you never reflect on yourself, you blame everyone else for everything. Where in that is the bearing befitting the Crown Prince's consort?"

　　"You... you..." Hearing this, Shenya was left choking with fury, pointing at Shenyu, unable to get a word out for a long moment.

　　"What, me? I am your elder brother, and even I get such insolence from you — I can hardly imagine what you're like back at Cize Hall." Shenyu shot Shenya a cold look, as much to voice his own displeasure as out of sheer frustrated hope for better from her.

　　"And you still call yourself my brother? Is this how a brother is supposed to speak of his own sister?" Shenya flung her sleeve back and, full of wounded self-pity, turned to storm off toward the inner rooms.

　　"Stand where you are! I'm not finished — where do you think you're going?" Shenyu swept out a hand and used a spell to yank her back.

　　"That's enough out of you! I am the Crown Prince's consort — how dare a mere subject like you treat me this way?" Shenya glared, eyes blazing, and spat the words through gritted teeth.

　　"You'd best hope you deserve the title..." Hearing Shenya invoke her rank as the Crown Prince's consort to browbeat him, Shenyu, in his fury, struck her across the face with his open palm.

　　"It is only His Highness's own kindness and forbearance that he does not hold it against you — do you truly believe that being the Crown Prince's consort gives you license to run wild? As his wife you ought to strive with all your heart to keep pace with him — and even if you cannot, you should at least make the effort to understand him, to support him from behind — not spend your days squabbling over petty domestic grievances and idle gossip. If you do not mend your ways, being cast aside is only a matter of time — don't wait until then to feel regret, when it will be too late."

　　"You struck me?" Shenya was stunned that Shenyu would strike her without the slightest hesitation — when in her whole life had she ever suffered such humiliation? She spun around and cried out at once for their mother.

　　"In the Shen household I am your elder brother, not your subject. If you refuse to heed my counsel and go on behaving so unreasonably, one day even our parents may not be able to save you — you would do well to remember what I have said today." With that, Shenyu left his stunned, furious sister standing there and stormed off in high dudgeon.