Chapter 1

When I was eighteen, I suddenly learned that I was the reigning emperor’s daughter.

At first, I did not believe it.

I had been without parents for years, growing up alone and friendless.

I survived on other people’s charity.

How was I supposed to accept an emperor turning up out of nowhere and claiming to be my father?

But the matron who had come for me was certain. She studied my features, examined the birthmark on my forehead, and smiled as she told me where I came from.

My mother had been a wet nurse in the crown prince’s household. Shamelessly, she had climbed into the emperor’s bed while he was drunk.

By the rules, she ought to have been punished.

But then, quite unexpectedly, a few days later she was found to be pregnant.

The emperor was furious, but the child she carried was still his.

So he had spared her life and confined her instead.

Once the child was born, he intended to grant her a lowly place among his consorts.

That was how I had come into the world.

The matron went on.

“But your mother… Such a foolish woman.” She sighed heavily. “She was so afraid that she escaped when the guards grew careless.”

That flight had kept father and child apart for eighteen years.

“His Majesty has never stopped searching for you.” Tears welled in her eyes. “Whenever he thought of his own flesh and blood wandering helplessly beyond the palace, it broke his heart.”

“Now Heaven has finally taken pity on him. Your features, that birthmark on your forehead… You look exactly as His Majesty did when he was young.”

She spoke so earnestly that even I began to cry.

Wiping her eyes, she looked me over with an appraising gaze and a barely discernible satisfaction. “His Majesty has felt deeply indebted to you all these years. He often speaks of you, and of his determination to make amends for your long separation.”

“And now, an extraordinary favor has come your way.”

Just as I began to think my future might finally be secure, her next words plunged me into ice.

“As soon as the eunuch brought news of you, His Majesty said he would personally choose a splendid marriage for you, to make up for all these years.”

“A marriage?”

I looked up, the smile stiffening on my lips. The question escaped before I could stop it.

“Indeed. His Majesty has decreed that you are to be titled Princess Zhaohe, and that you shall…”

She paused. Then, with everyone watching, she delivered the few words as though they weighed nothing.

“Marry the King of Nanyue.”

I went still.

The matron described the King of Nanyue as a young hero: resourceful, handsome, victorious in battle, a man of dazzling renown.

But as she spoke, her voice grew quieter.

“He is a foreign vassal king, a thousand miles away.”

I understood.

This sudden imperial favor, this father dropped into my life, was merely a way to fill a vacancy in a marriage alliance.

To him, and to the entire court, a daughter abandoned outside the palace with no one to protect her was the perfect means of silencing objections.

An excellent bargain.

What amused me was that he had decided where to send his own daughter without ever meeting her.

He had not even bothered to pretend.

How ironic.

Yet the matron continued to extol the King of Nanyue’s valor and brilliant prospects, as though this were a blessing every woman in the world must crave.

I listened in silence, my expression unchanged.

Only when she paused and looked at me expectantly did I slowly raise a hand.

My fingertips settled on my still flat belly. Through the fabric, I could feel its slight curve.

“I’m afraid I may have to disappoint you.” I straightened my sleeve, my tone level. “This marriage may not be possible.”

The eagerness froze on her face. She was about to speak.

I interrupted her.

“Because I’m pregnant.”

At that, I smiled, the corners of my mouth lifting just a little. “Three months along.”

Every trace of color drained from her face.