Chapter 1

I was the only daughter of the Feng clan of the Prince of Zhennan’s estate in the southern borderlands.

For four generations, my mother’s family had commanded two hundred thousand troops and guarded the southern frontier. The Fengs had lived in those remote wilds for so long, however, that we had never formed marriage ties with any of the capital’s aristocratic houses.

I owed my first trip to the capital to my husband, Ran Ling.

He had once been the Second Prince. Years ago, when he fled to the southern borderlands, my father rescued him and he later married me. The crown prince died the previous year, and with military achievements to his name, Ran Ling brought me back to the capital and made an aggressive bid for the throne.

That was how I finally got to see the capital’s splendor for myself. It was every bit as dazzling as people claimed, all brocade and blossoms wherever one looked.

The people, unfortunately, were less welcoming. Behind my back, they called me a savage.

“What a waste of an immortal-looking prince,” they said. “And to think she was the one who snapped him up.”

As if I cared.

My mother had told me I was going to the capital to enjoy myself: eat more, play more, and waste less time looking at idiots.

Before anyone could make a serious move against me, Princess Huning invited me to her estate. Presumably, the capital’s elite wanted to use her banquet to test the waters.

Ran Ling escorted me there, but warned me this would be the first and last such occasion.

“Princess Huning is famous for being able to charm anyone,” he said. “We’ll borrow her gathering to introduce the capital’s aristocratic families to you—the Feng clan’s commandery princess and my Princess Consort of Jin.”

I agreed, then asked if there was anything I needed to watch out for.

“If you want to curse someone, curse them. Don’t hold it in. Your mother isn’t here in the capital, but your man can still protect you.”

I agreed to that too.

As it turned out, he was worrying over nothing.

Princess Huning was quite courteous. She even praised me. She said the Feng clan was remarkably lucky to have backed such a treasure as Ran Ling.

All the noble young ladies looked at me and giggled.

I answered politely, “It wasn’t really luck. After all, you people drove him out of the capital, and no one picked him up throughout that long journey. He had to make it all the way to my doorstep before my family took him in.”

The courtyard fell silent.

Princess Huning didn’t look pleased.

I glanced around and added, “My mother says good things happen to good people.”

After that, they stopped talking to me.

Mother was right. People in the capital were terribly fragile.

Their habits were bizarre too.

The banquet food upset my stomach, so I went to relieve myself. To my horror, more than a dozen maids were waiting to attend me, holding fragrant powders, aloeswood-scented water, and all manner of other things.

Worse, they refused to stay quiet. While I was struggling through an already difficult situation, they began talking to me about Pei Ruoxue.

“Is it true that when the Second Prince fell from power, Miss Pei disregarded her reputation and eloped thousands of miles with him?”

“I heard His Highness once took a sword for her.”

“What a pity they were torn apart.”

I looked up.

More than a dozen pretty faces stared back at me, brimming with curiosity.

How inconsiderate could they get?

After holding myself back for a long moment, I said, “My mother says a woman who elopes enters the household as a concubine. Eloping is bad.”

“But Miss Pei was so brave. Just like a heroine in a romance.”

“Your Highness, surely you have the magnanimity to make room for her?”

I asked, “Then why don’t you find men to elope with? Don’t you want to be heroines in a romance?”

They fell silent again.

Apparently, all of them knew that after eloping, Pei Ruoxue had dumped Ran Ling, returned to the capital, and married into a wealthy family. Now that Ran Ling had also returned, her position had become awkward.

Mother was right about something else: people in the capital loved making smug remarks until the subject hit close to home. Then they sobered up in a hurry.