Ever since I was little, I had been a little slower than everyone else to speak and act.
People had always laughed at me for it when I was a child.
Gradually, I stopped wanting to speak.
Until the emperor asked me, in front of everyone, whom I wanted to marry.
When he named the gracious Prince Rui, my eyes lit up.
But by the time I nodded, the emperor had already asked, “Surely you don’t mean Prince Yan?”
Across the hall, the prince everyone called cruel and ruthless lurched in his seat and dropped his wine cup.