Chapter 1

By the time I learned that Yin Li had been stripped of his title as crown prince,

five days had passed.

He had been taken to the imperial prison.

His Majesty had not said whether he would be executed or exiled.

The court and everyone beyond it were in turmoil.

I knew nothing of it.

I was lazy, you see. I disliked stirring myself.

If I wasn’t in my bedchamber, I was on the built-in bench along the covered walkway, or on the swing in the courtyard.

I seldom went out.

This time, I was going out because it was my husband Lu Jinglan’s birthday.

I had prepared his gift in advance.

I timed it for the hour he usually finished work.

I meant to leave my courtyard, meet him outside the main gate, then make him a bowl of longevity noodles, just as I had every year.

But someone stopped me.

Only then did I notice.

The maids stationed outside my gate had been replaced by armed guards.

A murderous chill ran down my back.

A guard drew his sword.

“My lady, you cannot leave.”

I was under house arrest.

Almost instantly,

I knew something had happened to Yin Li.

Something terrible.

I sat on the low table in my little kitchen.

Water bubbled and gurgled in the pot.

The sky slowly darkened.

Everyone who served in my courtyard had been sent away.

It was very quiet.

The hour Lu Jinglan finished work was long past.

Two interminable hours.

I was still waiting.

In our five years of marriage,

this was the first time he had failed to come home by this hour of the night.

I was terribly nervous, in truth.

Such a long wait, with no clear idea of what was happening and no news I could trust, bred endless fear.

My thoughts wandered wildly.

Was I going to die?

What did dying feel like?

I found myself afraid.

Soft footsteps approached.

I stood up.

I put on a smile.

But no.

It wasn’t Lu Jinglan.

It was his elder brother’s wife.

My sister-in-law had come alone.

She looked at me with pity and resentment in her eyes.

“Did you know that before you married into this family, I was negotiating a marriage with Jinglan?

“The deposed crown prince ordered him to marry you. I had to marry his elder brother instead—a useless concubine’s son.”

Things must be very grave indeed. They certainly weren’t in my favor.

My sister-in-law would never have dared speak to me like this before.

Everyone lends a hand when there’s a wall to push down.

Yin Li had fallen.

And I, the little grasshopper who relied on him, could no longer leap about as I pleased.

My sister-in-law wiped her tears.

“Do you know why Jinglan hasn’t come home tonight?”

I lifted my head.

She spoke with relish.

“He’s in the ancestral hall. The deposed crown prince has committed treason, a capital offense. He’s in prison, and he’ll never recover from this.

“You were his fiancée. He’s the only reason you managed to marry into a family as exalted as ours.

“Now that your protector has fallen, how can you expect to live?

“Our parents-in-law and the clan head have agreed to put you to death.

“Lu Jinglan has consented.”