Chapter 8: Debate

What was Shen Miao like?
Ask any student at Guangwen Academy—first year, second, or third—and they'd know. Stupid. Timid. Yet she played the modest, virtuous miss.
Nothing special in face or air. No skill mastered. A lovesick fool—the whole capital knew her crush on Prince Ding.
So if you asked who was finest among the girls, the answer was Shen Yue. If you asked who was lowest, the answer was Shen Miao.
Same family, opposite images. Everyone was used to the Shen Yue who had a maid-like Shen Miao at her side. When Shen Miao stopped looking like Shen Miao, the room felt wrong.
Yi Peilan nudged Shen Yue. "Yue-niang, is your sister fever-mad? Today she's like a different person."
Shen Yue watched Shen Miao, puzzled too. Since waking from the water, her temper had shifted—Prince Ding's affair that hard a blow? She was about to speak when her friend Jiang Caixuan cut in. "Shen Miao, I heard you fell in. Is your chill cured?"
Said that bald in public—it was meant to humiliate. The old Shen Miao would have looked helplessly at Shen Yue for rescue. Today she only glanced at Jiang Caixuan and said flatly, "I'm well. Thank you for asking."
Jiang Caixuan froze. The whole school froze with her. Perhaps she hadn't expected such cool dismissal. Shen Miao's tone grated. Jiang Caixuan snapped, "If you're well, shouldn't your first act be apologizing to Prince Ding—not coming to class? Don't you have your priorities backward?"
Shen Miao drew a deep breath. Neither boys nor girls spoke for her. She had never had a friend. Watching Shen Miao make a fool of herself was one of the nobles' few pleasures here.
She swept the room—faces varied—and caught the triumph in Shen Qing's eyes. She was about to answer when Shen Yue said, "Prince Ding is magnanimous. He won't blame Fifth Sister over a trifle. She came to learn—that's a good thing."
"What good thing." A boy on the other side couldn't hold back his laugh. He had loved Shen Yue in secret for years and despised Shen Miao—her existence was tragedy for Shen Yue, he thought. "Eager to learn, Shen Yue? If you want to help your sister, pick a believable line. Eager to learn—from someone who can't read a first-year text? Ridiculous! And—" He looked Shen Miao over with malice. "Who knows if she fell in on purpose? Plays always run the same—fall in the water, hero saves beauty, beauty owes her life… Wrong ending, that's all!" He laughed loud at his own wit.
He was the leader of that pack of boys. Others roared with him. The girls around Shen Yue laughed too. Mockery closed around Shen Miao; every gaze dripped malice.
Words are the cruelest blade. In her last life, scenes like this had happened countless times. She had grown used to contempt, insult, laughter—and refused to break the label herself. In time Shen Yue and Shen Qing made friends with all these noble children while she drifted farther from the circle.
She had thought that the greatest misfortune. Compared with what came later, what was this? These boys and girls weren't even as old as her Wanyu and Fuming—yet a little provocation and they were enemies. Were they truly her foes?
No. These noble children were rich or powerful. Many were great clan heirs—and what had become of the great clans in her last life? The late emperor and Fu Xiuyi had uprooted them one by one. Take the boy mocking her now—Shen Yue's admirer, eldest son of the Cai family, Chamberlain for Ceremonial Cai Lin. A few years on, the Cais would be caught in an embezzlement case, estates confiscated, Cai Lin banished to military service. Poor fool had loved Shen Yue for years; in the end Shen Yue couldn't wait to cut him off.
She and these youths weren't enemies. Some would stand on the same side. Only the throne's deliberate balance and provocation kept the clans in uneasy opposition—loose ties, old grudges.
No need to turn allies into foes. As empress she had learned: don't make enemies in a fit of pride. Too costly.
"Cai Lin, how can you speak of Fifth Sister that way?" After the laughter died, Shen Yue spoke up. "She isn't that kind of person."
"Cai Lin," Shen Miao cut across Shen Yue, voice level, without rise or fall, "who told you I fell in because I loved Prince Ding?"
To say it that openly should invite scorn. Yet Shen Miao's face was calm, her tone so cool that the room stalled.
Cai Lin was the local bully. The old Shen Miao barely dared a word to him. When had she used a tone like an interrogation—almost a command? Cai Lin didn't know why himself. He didn't curse. He only said, "Wasn't it?"
"So that's what people think…" Shen Miao murmured to herself, then smiled slightly at Shen Yue and Shen Qing. "Eldest Sister, Second Sister—you know the truth. Why not speak for your sister?"
Shen Yue and Shen Qing stiffened. They remembered their mothers' parting orders: on Shen Miao's drowning, say nothing wrong. Shen Qing was the steadier. At once she said, "Yes—don't talk nonsense. I was with Fifth Sister. I saw it myself. She slipped. Prince Ding happened to arrive. Nothing to do with love."
Spoken so firmly, the crowd still didn't quite believe—but the edge was gone. Then Shen Miao said, "To speak without seeing is rash. Guangwen Hall teaches lessons—and should teach character. Besides, love is a fine word. Why make it filthy? If I Shen Miao love someone, I will love with dignity. Prince Ding is imperial blood—how could I dare reach? You are all mistaken."
In this world, one breath won't erase an image. Her obsession with Fu Xiuyi was known everywhere. To say she didn't love him now—few would believe.
Still, a line had to be drawn.
Before she finished, a voice of praise rang out: "Well said—love with dignity!"