Chapter 1

I saw Su Qing again on the day of the palace selection.

We were both candidates waiting to be presented.

At the sight of me, excitement lit her face. She rushed over and seized my hands. “Cen Yun? Is that you? Cen Yun, it’s me! Qing’er!”

She was loud enough to make the other candidates turn and stare.

I nodded slightly, signaling with my eyes for her to lower her voice. “It’s me.”

She nearly jumped into the air. “This is amazing! We both traveled—”

I hurriedly held her back. “Quietly.”

She glanced around and understood.

Drawing me aside, she lowered her voice. “Ah Yun, I’m so happy to see you! You have no idea how bored I’ve been here all alone. Now that you’re here, it’ll be all right. Oh, who are you in this world? Have you been okay this past month?”

So she had arrived only a month ago.

She did not know that I had been born here.

This body was already sixteen years old.

I had been here for sixteen years.

If I had not met her again, I might almost have forgotten that I came from another world at all.

It had been so many years since I last saw Su Qing that I could not help smiling, too.

I nodded. “I’ve been fine. What about you?”

The words had barely left my mouth when her ankle suddenly turned.

I reached out to steady her.

I caught her, but accidentally bumped the candidate beside us and stepped on her foot.

The girl’s slender brows snapped upward in anger.

“What country bumpkin are you? So clumsy!”

“I’m sorry.” I lowered my head and apologized at once.

She would not let it go. “You think an apology will do? You’ve dirtied my shoes!”

Su Qing’s temper flared. “Who are you calling a country bumpkin?”

The girl sneered and pointed at me. “Her, of course. Look at that shabby little thing. What else could she be?”

“How did someone like her even qualify for the selection? Could she afford to replace my shoes?”

“You—” Su Qing was about to let fly when I stopped her.

“I am truly sorry for dirtying your shoes. If anything I am wearing takes your fancy, please accept it as an apology.”

The girl’s eyes filled with disdain. “You think I’d want any of that cheap rubbish?”

Su Qing gritted her teeth. “Then what do you want?”

The girl looked down her nose at me. “I want her on her knees, kowtowing an apology.”

The other candidates gathered to watch. They whispered among themselves, but not one spoke up for us.

Su Qing looked ready to explode. “What did you say?”

“It’s all right. I’ll handle it,” I whispered into her ear.

Sixteen years in this world.

Every sharp edge I once had had been worn away.

I had no great ambition. I only wanted to live in peace.

Yet in a world like this, even staying alive was hard.

I turned toward the girl and slowly began to lower myself to my knees.

Su Qing reached to catch me, but then seemed to remember something. Her furious expression changed, and she smiled. “My lady, we’re inside the imperial palace, right under His Majesty’s nose. If he hears how unreasonable and overbearing you’ve been, do you think he’ll still want to keep you?”

The girl’s face stiffened. She was plainly worried.

She thought it over, her face turning an ugly purple.

At last, she flung out her sleeve and stalked away.