Chapter 1
The emperor’s great love had returned.
And she said she would marry no one but me.
His Majesty was so furious he meant to castrate me himself.
Then he discovered I was a woman.
Minister Xu, who had been matching wits with him at court all this time, was a woman.
Knife in hand, the emperor pulled my trousers back up with trembling fingers.
His entire understanding of the world must have been collapsing.
To be fair, Minister Xu really was a man.
He was my twin brother, Xu Qingshan.
I was Xu Qingzhu. We looked almost identical, though I was half a head shorter.
With a few adjustments, I could pass for him.
My brother had gone to suppress the bandits on Flying Tiger Mountain, only to be abducted by their female chief.
We considered it an unspeakable disgrace.
We led soldiers to rescue him, then discovered he was perfectly happy there.
He even intended to retire into the mountains with his bandit bride and live in bliss forever.
No amount of persuasion worked. There was nothing else to be done.
Father had me take his place as minister for the time being.
Officially, the Xu family’s daughter had fallen gravely ill and gone to recover on a country estate.
My brother was painfully straightforward. I had always known how to get along with people.
Once I assumed his identity, I flourished. My career prospered.
It helped that I was handsome, eloquent, and never short of a clever remark.
Countless daughters of distinguished families secretly lost their hearts to me.
One of them was the emperor’s great love—the only daughter of General Zuo.
Her name was Zuo Yunnian.
She had grown up in military camps.
She was used to large, powerful fighting men.
Then she saw a slender, delicate-looking fellow like me arguing down an entire assembly of learned officials.
The contrast between my appearance and my force of character won her heart at first sight. At the second, she was hopelessly smitten.
She traveled all the way back from the army to ask the emperor to grant us a marriage.
I had heard His Majesty had pined for Miss Zuo for ten years. Learning this must have made him furious.
Now that fury had been doused with cold water.
In its place came profound despair. His masculine charms had lost to a woman.
“Your Highness, Miss Zuo is simply carried away for the moment.”
“Perhaps she’s testing whether you care about her.” I comforted him as I fastened my belt.
A sudden warm trickle ran down. Oh, no.
My period. I had hurried to the palace and forgotten the date.
My abrupt silence puzzled the emperor. Turning, he saw my peculiar expression.
And the blood seeping through my trousers.
Alarm and guilt flooded his face.
“Qingshan! Did my blade hurt you?”
“This is my fault. Let me see where you’re wounded.”
He thought he had injured me by accident and reached to examine the damage.
I hastily refused, wondering whether His Majesty was missing something upstairs.
As we stood at an impasse, Miss Zuo burst through the door.
She had heard the emperor meant to castrate me.
She arrived in a fury. Then she saw the sword on the floor and the blood on my trousers.
Her angry little face turned white.
“Qingshan, you… Surely you haven’t…?”
Disbelieving horror filled her pale face.
The emperor and I waved our hands frantically. No, no. Nothing of the kind.
Miss Zuo had already burst into heartrending sobs.
Between sniffles, she denounced the cruelty of fate.
“Must I live like a widow before I’ve even married?”
The emperor darted about, trying to explain.
Yet he could not tell her the truth.
If she went on crying, by tomorrow the whole capital would know Minister Xu was impotent.
Sorry, Brother.
I really should have explained. But I simply couldn’t resist being awful.