Extra 9. Baojia × Li Dafeng - Gentle Breeze Comes Slowly · 2

“And then what?” Jiang Zhiyi asked eagerly, her curiosity piqued. “Did you follow in the third princess’s footsteps and start pretending to be sick every day just to win over Doctor Li?”

“Would I, Princess Baojia, stoop so low as to resort to such tactics?” Baojia smirked. “I didn’t need to pretend—I had cats. One big one and three kittens—four in total.”

If people couldn’t fake illnesses, cats could. And they could take turns being sick, too. Clearly, she, Princess Baojia, was one step ahead of her sister.

“With the third princess losing to a bunch of cats, she must have thrown a tantrum,” Jiang Zhiyi said, chuckling at the thought.

“The more she threw a fit, the more Li Dafeng avoided her like the plague. To escape her, he even used my cats as an excuse, spending half his days at my palace playing with them.”

Jiang Zhiyi thought to herself: So Doctor Li had escaped the wolf’s den, only to stumble into the tiger’s lair. Then again, given how sharp Doctor Li was, he must have realized that Princess Baojia was far more formidable than her sister.

This was a case of knowingly walking into danger, yet choosing it anyway.

“But once he came, surely he didn’t just focus on the cats, right?” Jiang Zhiyi pressed.

Baojia glanced at her mischievously. “You said we’d only talk about the beginning and the ending. The middle part spans an entire year—how am I supposed to remember all the details?”

“Alright, then tell me the ending,” Jiang Zhiyi urged.

Baojia smiled faintly. “The ending, huh—”

At first, Li Dafeng truly spent time at her palace caring for the postpartum cat. After the cat recovered and became lively again, whenever she invited him over, it was clearly out of personal interest rather than necessity. He went along with it willingly, using her invitation as a way to avoid her sister.

But later, things changed.

Consort Fan looked down on the idea of her daughter marrying the son of a mere imperial physician. Seeing her daughter’s determination to make Li Dafeng her prince consort, Consort Fan forcefully arranged another marriage for her, completely crushing her hopes.

With this obstacle removed, Li Dafeng no longer needed to use her cats as an excuse to avoid her sister. Yet, he still feigned ignorance and continued visiting her palace, often spending hours playing with the cats.

Back then, she was young and inexperienced in matters of the heart. She suspected he might harbor feelings for her but didn’t know how to ask outright. Thinking there was no rush, she kept inviting him over, maintaining the thin veil between them.

Until her mother—the empress—intervened.

By then, her third sister had been forced into an unhappy engagement and wallowed in misery daily. Hearing that Li Dafeng still frequented Princess Baojia’s palace, her sister spread malicious rumors throughout the court out of resentment.

When the empress heard about it, she forbade Baojia from seeing Li Dafeng anymore.

In a moment of desperation, Baojia confessed to her mother, declaring that she liked Li Dafeng and wanted him to become her prince consort.

Unlike Consort Fan, who insisted her daughter marry into a prestigious family, the empress wasn’t opposed to the match in principle. However, she pointed out that Li Dafeng had become embroiled in scandal due to his association with two princesses. With gossip swirling outside the palace, she advised Baojia to wait until the storm passed before discussing the matter with the emperor.

Baojia guessed that Li Dafeng had also come under pressure during this time. For a while, he stopped showing up at the Imperial Medical Bureau, let alone visiting her palace.

But because of this, she resolved to clarify their relationship once and for all. If she couldn’t see him in person, she could at least send him a letter. She instructed Cuimei to find an opportunity to leave the palace and deliver her handwritten note directly to Li Dafeng at his residence.

She no longer remembered the lengthy contents of that letter, except for the final question she posed: Did he want to become her prince consort? She demanded a clear answer. If yes, he should hang a red lantern on the osmanthus tree outside his house the next day; if no, a yellow lantern.

The next day, Cuimei left the palace again. When she returned, she reported that the lantern hanging outside Li Dafeng’s house was red.

It was red.

He wanted to be her prince consort.

That period felt like the happiest days of her life afterward. Even though she couldn’t see him, just thinking about that red lantern made her smile in her dreams.

As the legitimate princess of Daye, she was different from her third sister. She didn’t need to compromise or rely on anyone else’s power. She could decide her own fate. Once the gossip died down, she was confident she could persuade the emperor to issue a decree granting their marriage—

Or so she thought.

But before the rumors could subside, news broke that the entire Li family had been arrested overnight.

The sudden blow left her stunned. Only then did she realize that the earlier rumors weren’t the true reason her mother had tried to stop her from seeing Li Dafeng.

Her mother had received advance warning. She learned that Li Dafeng’s father, the imperial physician, had enemies within the medical bureau who had uncovered old secrets about the Li family. They suspected that during the reign of her grandfather, the Li family had committed an act of treason by secretly saving a pair of twin infant girls who were supposed to have been executed.

When her mother received this information, the accusers hadn’t yet gathered concrete evidence, and the matter hadn’t reached the emperor’s ears.

But her mother understood that where there’s smoke, there’s fire. The Li family was likely doomed, and she didn’t want Baojia entangled further with Li Dafeng. To prevent her from stubbornly resisting, the empress placated her with vague promises of reconsideration, buying time to keep her safely confined within the palace walls.

Only then did Baojia realize that the sweet dreams she’d been dreaming during those days weren’t real—they were a cruel illusion. Her mother had drawn thick curtains around her, shielding her from the harsh light of reality and tricking her into believing it was nighttime, when she could dream freely.

She confronted her mother: If she had received advance warning, why hadn’t she intervened to suppress the matter? Setting aside their personal feelings, hadn’t Li Dafeng’s father served the royal family and the empress faithfully for years? Didn’t he deserve her help?

Her mother replied coldly: Of course not. Helping them would also constitute an act of treason. Should she risk her own life for someone else’s?

“But isn’t that exactly what the Li family did—risk everything for the sake of others?”

Years later, recalling the hysterical argument with her mother, Baojia no longer believed her mother had done anything wrong.

Surviving in the depths of the palace, wasn’t self-preservation a rule everyone lived by—not just her mother?

After the Li family’s downfall, her third sister rejoiced that Consort Fan had made the right decision. Otherwise, she would have been ruined too.

None of the officials or palace concubines who had been treated—or even saved—by Li Dafeng’s father stood up to defend the Li family. A sigh of regret was the greatest gratitude they could muster.

Faced with the ironclad charge of treason, not a single person spoke on behalf of the Li family.

What fault was there in their silence? They simply lacked sincerity.

It wasn’t long before opportunists within the Imperial Medical Bureau piled on, claiming that the Li family must have known their secret might one day come to light, which explained why Li Dafeng’s father had worked so diligently all these years. Some even slandered Li Dafeng himself, accusing him of courting her—the legitimate princess—in hopes of climbing the social ladder and securing his family’s safety in the future.

She watched their smug faces, listened to their cold, cutting remarks, and finally appealed to the emperor—her own father.

If Cuimei hadn’t told her later, she wouldn’t have known that she had knelt outside her father’s inner chambers for three full days and nights.

At first, her mind was relatively clear, and she repeatedly pleaded her case. But as time dragged on, she grew delirious, no longer feeling her body or the passage of time. She would collapse onto the ground, unconscious, only to wake up again, force herself upright, and continue kneeling.

This cycle repeated endlessly. By the fourth day, despite Cuimei constantly feeding her water, she could no longer endure it. She collapsed outside the hall and was carried back to her quarters in the palace.

When she woke, she saw her father sitting by her bedside. For a brief moment, hope flickered in her heart, but then he spoke: “Look at what you’ve done to yourself. It’s just a potential son-in-law. Your father will find you someone better.”

The fragile hope that had briefly risen was cruelly extinguished. So even a legitimate princess wasn’t so special after all. Half her life spent kneeling hadn’t earned her father’s mercy—not even a single word of pardon.

Closing her eyes again, she sank into a deep, despairing sleep.

When she awoke, she learned she had slept for several days and nights. Anxious, she tried to inquire about the Li family’s situation during those days.

Confined to her chambers, unable to step foot outside, she arranged through intermediaries to send food and supplies to the Li family in prison. After much effort, the items were delivered—but they were returned untouched.

Through a guard, Li Dafeng’s father relayed a message, thanking her for her kindness but urging her not to trouble herself further on behalf of the Li family, lest she bring harm upon herself.

She asked about Li Dafeng—how was he? Did he have any words for her?

The guard replied that Li Dafeng was physically unharmed but had no message to pass along.

The case against the Li family did not require a formal investigation by the Three Departments. With the charge of treason confirmed, a swift verdict was reached. The emperor sentenced the Li family to exile, decreeing that all male members of the household be sent to the borderlands for three years, after which they would regain their freedom.

Her mother consoled her, saying this was already a lenient punishment, granted out of consideration for her sake.

Was it truly leniency for her, or was it merely to demonstrate the emperor’s benevolence? Exile meant shackles and thousands of miles of forced marches—a slow, torturous death by a thousand cuts. Yet this was still called “mercy.”

She smiled bitterly at her mother and said, “Thankfully, Father has shown compassion. At least my kneeling wasn’t entirely in vain.”

Her mother sighed, saying it was good that she had come to terms with it. Though the Li family’s lives had been spared, after enduring exile, they would likely be shadows of their former selves—neither alive nor dead. From now on, she should forget about Li Dafeng.

She agreed, saying she had done all she could and had nothing left to hold onto.

Her mother deceived her, and she, in turn, deceived her mother. She deceived everyone, finally earning the chance to escape that gilded cage. Alone, she fled the palace.

Riding hard, she caught up with the Li family on their journey into exile. When she finally saw her long-lost beloved, she almost didn’t recognize him at first glance.

In the past, he had always worn pristine white robes, his hair tied neatly with a jade pin—clean, elegant, refined. But that day, heavy chains weighed down his wrists, his back was bent, and stubble shadowed his face.

No—it wasn’t just that day. For over a thousand days to come, this was how he would remain.

So when she told him she intended to accompany him into exile, he smiled faintly and said, “Has the princess misunderstood something?”

“A criminal like me doesn’t need a princess who shares my hardships and suffers alongside me. What I need is a princess who can grant me wealth and honor, ensuring my family’s favor with the throne.”

“Haven’t you heard what they say in the Imperial Medical Bureau? All my careful planning was aimed at using you to save my family. Unfortunately, it seems you don’t hold much sway with His Majesty either—your three-day kneel accomplished nothing.”

“In that case, Princess, please don’t add to the chaos. Are you expecting this humble convict to treat you along the way?”

That bastard—did he think he was such a good liar?

She already knew the truth. Back then, Li Dafeng had been too young to understand his family’s secrets. It was only after the entire family was imprisoned that he learned the full story in jail.

When he hung that red lantern, he had sincerely wanted to marry her.

But on the day the shackles were clasped around his wrists, he had also sincerely let her go.