Chapter 1

Chapter 1

The palace was silent and oppressive. Ever since His Majesty encountered two palace maids laughing and chatting before the Noble Consort’s funeral-and subsequently had their tongues cut out and eyes gouged to turn them into human jars-hardly anyone in the entire palace dared to speak.

Chi Yan had not attended court for ten days. He had delayed the funeral procession for the Noble Consort’s body, choosing instead to sit in a daze by her coffin all day long.

In the dim mourning hall, beside the magnificent coffin, he gazed at the person lying quietly inside, dressed in a Phoenix Coronet and official robes. His pale, stiff fingers brushed over her face.

His Xiao Tao was still so beautiful.

“I haven’t given you the position of Empress I promised. How could you just die?”

He cried.

He actually knew how to cry.

I sat down beside him, staring at his tears, trying to see if they were real or fake.

“Lin Jinrong… Oh, Lin Jinrong, why did you die? How could you die…”

He repeated her name woodenly, over and over.

I grew tired of listening and propped up my head, feeling drowsy. “Dead is dead.”

“Lin Jinrong, I won’t kill him anymore. I won’t kill Chu Jue. Just wake up, alright?”

His almost humble tone surprised me.

As far as I knew, he had always been insurmountably arrogant. No one but Lin Yue ever caught his eye; in front of me, his humility had always been a facade.

“If you don’t wake up, I really will crown Lin Yue as Empress.”

“Go ahead then. It doesn’t matter to me anymore.”

I tilted my head back and yawned. Finally, I didn’t have to worry about the proper etiquette of a Noble Consort. I could stretch however I wanted, laugh however I wanted, and cry however I wanted.

“I went to see the Peach Trees you planted. Every blossom is delicate and dripping with beauty. It’s lovely. Do you remember the first time we met?”

Of course I remembered.

I had loved peaches since I was a child. My father had planted several Peach Trees in the courtyard, and I used to climb them to pick the fruit.

The servants below would stretch out their hands in terror, shouting, “Eldest Miss, be careful! Please don’t fall!”

I would intentionally move around up there to scare them, laughing at their frightened expressions.

But once, I slipped and actually fell.

I squeezed my eyes shut, but the expected pain never came. Instead, I fell into a solid embrace.

When I opened my eyes, I was stunned. The only thing more dazzling than the petals dancing in the air was Chi Yan’s face.

He was so incredibly handsome that every time he infuriated me, just looking at his face would make half my anger dissipate.

“That day, when I caught you, you stared at me like a fool. Actually, I was quite annoyed, but at the time, you were Lin Shijie’s only daughter.”

Lin Yue was my father’s legitimate daughter who had been lost since childhood. I suppose if Lin Yue hadn’t been missing back then, the person Chi Yan caught that day definitely wouldn’t have been me.

Although Chi Yan had been named Crown Prince early on, the political situation at court was unstable. The Late Emperor favored the son of Consort Yi and took every opportunity to suppress the Crown Prince in hopes of naming a new heir.

Chi Yan desperately needed allies. He turned his gaze toward the Grand Tutor, a man known for his integrity and beloved by the people-my father, Grand Tutor Lin.

And at that time, my father had only one daughter: me.

Before Lin Yue appeared, Chi Yan and I were considered a match made in heaven, a pair of gifted scholars and beauties. We studied and learned to write together, practiced horse riding and archery together. I often went to the palace to visit the Empress Dowager, learning the palace rules as diligently as the other Noble Ladies, thinking that one day I would marry him.

Before Lin Yue appeared, he treated me exceptionally well. He would take me to Chengde Street to buy hairpins. When I asked him if the pink or the red one looked better, he would pat my head and say, “You look beautiful in anything.”

He would also take me to taverns to listen to storytellers. The storyteller would strike his gavel sharply: “What is love, that it makes one grant life and death to another? Alas, nothing in this world can ever be perfect.”

I would cry sad tears, and he would pull me into his arms, coaxing me gently, “Xiao Tao, we will be together forever. While I am the Crown Prince, you shall be the Crown Princess. When I am Emperor, you shall surely be the Empress.”

During the Lantern Festival, we would dress as a young master and lady from an ordinary family to release lanterns on the river, watch fireworks from the city walls, and eat wontons at the night market.

Back then, I truly felt that he loved me.

But after Lin Yue returned, everything changed…

First to change was my father. He no longer doted on me as he once had. His heart and eyes were full of nothing but the long-lost Lin Yue, putting her first in everything.
Grandmother eventually grew to love her too. Before, Grandmother would always hold me in her arms, rubbing my cheeks with eyes full of affection, but now she preferred Lin Yue.

Lin Yue was brilliant and wise; Lin Yue was sensible and well-behaved; Lin Yue was cute and interesting-Lin Yue was perfect in every single way.

Even the servants in the manor liked her.

Before she arrived, even though I was the daughter of a concubine, they still had to call me the Eldest Young Lady because I was Father’s only daughter. Now that Lin Yue was here, I was a concubine’s daughter in name and in fact, and they all called me the Second Young Lady.

But none of them mattered. I still had my Chi Yan. What I never expected was that the Empress Dowager would actually betroth Lin Yue to Chi Yan!

I hated Lin Yue to death; I loathed her!

She was a vixen, a wretched woman! She stole my Chi Yan away.

Chi Yan gripped my hands and promised me solemnly, “Rest assured, I will never fall for her. You are the only one in my heart.”

I didn’t believe him.

They had all fallen for Lin Yue!

Chi Yan held me, kissing my lips with a gaze that was focused and tender. “Trust me. Once I become the Emperor, I will surely crown you as my Empress.”

I wrapped my arms around his waist and pressed myself against his chest, listening to his heartbeat. I didn’t know if he was telling the truth or a lie, but I believed him hopelessly, convinced that this was real.

On the day of their wedding, Lin Yue wore a Phoenix Coronet and a crimson robe. With a bridal procession stretching for miles and the entire city cheering them on, it was the most magnificent wedding imaginable. And the man she married was Chi Yan, the man I loved most.

Fortunately, I had sent spies to follow her, reporting their every move to me at all times.

When I learned that they hadn’t even consummated their marriage on their wedding night and had actually come to blows, I was overjoyed.

Chi Yan had kept his word. I was still the one he loved. Once he became the Emperor, he would marry me and make me his Empress.

When that time came, I would also wear the most beautiful clothes and have the most sensational wedding.

Chi Yan still met with me often, and we were just as we had been before. But gradually, the frequency of our meetings dwindled.

The reports I received every day began to read:

*The Crown Prince and the Crown Princess practiced martial arts together.*

*The Crown Princess fell from a tree while trying to save a bird and was rescued by the Crown Prince.*

*The Crown Princess took first place at the hunting grounds and received a reward from His Majesty; her relationship with the Crown Prince has softened.*

*The Crown Prince and the Crown Princess discussed official matters together.*

*The Crown Prince and the Crown Princess went boating on the lake.*

*The Crown Prince and the Ninth Prince came to blows over the Crown Princess.*

*The Crown Prince and the Crown Princess spent the night together…*

“You’ve fallen for her, haven’t you? You love her!”

I questioned him loudly, but the indulgence in his eyes was gone, replaced by a flicker of disgust.

“Can you stop being so unreasonable? Don’t think I don’t know what you’ve done. Were those archers at the hunting grounds your doing? What were you trying to do-kill your own sister?”

“You’ve changed, Lin Jinrong. You are becoming more and more out of line, more and more irrational!”

I grabbed his sleeve to stop him from leaving, clinging to him tightly, crying and screaming for him to stay.

“Chi Yan, didn’t you say you only loved me? I’m sorry, I was wrong! But I’m scared, I’m so scared… I’m afraid you don’t want me anymore…”

He finally turned around, his gaze hesitant and complex. I rushed forward and threw my arms around his neck.

“Chi Yan, please don’t leave me. Don’t stop loving me.”

After a long silence, he sighed softly and stroked my back, comforting me just as he used to.

“Fine, stop crying. Since I gave you my word, I won’t go back on it. Just don’t do those things anymore. Lin Yue… she really is a good girl.”

A good girl. A good girl.

If she was such a good girl, why did she have to steal everything from me?

Chi Yan and I could never go back to how we were. He became increasingly cold toward me and increasingly devoted to Lin Yue.

Lin Yue was the center of everyone’s attention. Everyone loved her. She was different; she knew medicine, was skilled in poetry and literature, and knew martial arts. She lacked the stereotypical fragility of other women and possessed a unique aura of her own.

She was the Legitimate Daughter of the Lin Family who had been lost for years, the heroine His Majesty praised incessantly, the only daughter of my father’s late wife whom he doted upon, Chi Yan’s Crown Princess, and the Ninth Prince’s beloved.

Even though Chi Yan told me over and over, promising me again and again, he couldn’t lie to me, nor could he lie to himself. His heart and eyes were full of nothing but Lin Yue.

My Chi Yan… he had fallen in love with Lin Yue.