Chapter 1

Chapter 1

I was nine when I entered the palace and was assigned to the most out-of-favor prince-Lu Yunzhou.

How out of favor was he? I had to split my own food allowance with him just so he had something to eat. I set traps for sparrows, snuck into the lake at midnight to catch koi-I tried everything I could to keep him alive.

When Lu Yunzhou fell ill, I screwed up my courage and blocked the path of Cao Wang, the head eunuch who attended the Emperor. I knelt on the ground, kowtowing until my forehead bled, before he finally agreed to send a physician for Lu Yunzhou.

“You’re a loyal girl, but your loyalty is wasted.”

Cao Wang cast a pitying look at me.

Everyone in the palace knew that Lu Yunzhou was the Emperor’s most despised son; even if he died, no one would ask questions.

Lu Yunzhou said I was the only one in the world who treated him well. He gripped my hand tightly.

“Yunyao, you’re all I have.”

“Yunyao, if I ever crawl out of this mire, I will never betray you.”

But later, when he gained the world, I stopped mattering.

I sat motionless before the mirror, and in its reflection appeared my haggard, pallid face-and Lu Yunzhou standing behind me, his expression full of impatience.

“Yunyao, you rose from a palace maid to become my consort. What more could you possibly want? How dare you provoke Li’er over nothing?”

“If you don’t want to be a consort, then go back to being a servant.”

Consort Li was Wen Yali, the legitimate daughter of the Grand Secretary, and she had once been betrothed to the former Crown Prince.

In the past, when she entered the palace, she would follow behind that Crown Prince, watching him bully me and Lu Yunzhou.

Whenever the Crown Prince went too far, she would sometimes interject a few words.

“The Seventh Prince is, after all, imperial blood. If something were to happen, the Emperor might one day blame us.”

“Why not take it out on this lowly maid instead? Someone, throw her into the lake!”

In the dead of winter, I crawled out of the lake, frozen to the brink of death. Lu Yunzhou held me, sobbing, vowing to make them pay one day.

Yet when he ascended the throne as the Emperor, the very first thing he did was make Wen Yali his Consort Li.

He explained to me that it was to win over the Grand Secretary.

How could I have believed that?

I let out a bitter laugh, watching as Wen Yali stepped forward and wrapped her arms around Lu Yunzhou’s arm.

“Emperor, my palace happens to need a personal maid. Why not grant her to me?”

“Fine, whatever you wish-”

Lu Yunzhou smiled and playfully tapped her on the nose, his face brimming with adoration.

I smiled wretchedly, two streams of hot tears rolling from my eyes. My vision blurred, and then I suddenly saw several lines of text appear on the bronze mirror before me.

“Guys, I can’t even-seeing High Immortal Yunyao in this miserable state is just too satisfying!”

“Right? That arrogant, domineering Yunyao who challenged everything-I never thought she’d end up like this. I’m going to eat three extra bowls of rice tonight.”

“Ahem, she won’t realize we’re using the Heaven and Earth Mirror to spy on her love tribulation, will she?”

“No way, she’s just an ordinary mortal now, how could she possibly notice?”

The lines of text scrolled by rapidly, and as I read the contents, I was utterly baffled.

High Immortal Yunyao?