Chapter 1

A blood-red moon rose into the sky.

In the distance, the waves of screaming gradually died away.

All the men had been killed. The only survivors were the women huddled inside these tents.

Every lovely young face was now filled with boundless despair and terror.

Once, these girls had been the most exalted ladies of the palace.

Now their fathers and brothers had been slaughtered by the Qiangrong cavalry. Shackles bound their wrists, and they had been thrown into the tent like lambs awaiting the knife.

The tent flap lifted, and several Qiangrong soldiers strode in.

They were hulking brutes with fleshy faces. The nauseating stench of blood clung to them, and lewd smiles curled their lips.

“At last, we get to find out what the noblewomen of Southern Tang taste like.”

“There are even a few princesses in here. Think a princess will scream more sweetly than an ordinary woman?”

The girls burst into frightened sobs. Some cried out for their parents, while others tried to take their own lives. Amid the chaos, an eager voice rang out.

“Gentlemen, I’ll go with you.”

The speaker was my younger sister, Yuhe.

I knew at once that she had been reborn too.

The same thing had happened in our previous lives.

The Qiangrong soldiers had entered the tent to choose women for their pleasure.

Back then, Yuhe had desperately shrunk into the rear, shoving everyone else ahead of her.

When an eight-year-old girl was about to be pushed to the very front, I stepped up and shielded her.

“If you must take someone, take me.”

The soldiers dragged me out of the tent, and the other girls escaped their fate.

As I left, I heard Yuhe patting her chest in relief. “Thank goodness. At least it’s Yusu who’s going to die.”

Another girl protested indignantly, “Sister Yusu risked her life to protect us. You’re a princess too—where is your sense of duty?”

Yuhe snapped back, “How could Yusu possibly compare with me? I am the only daughter of the emperor and empress. She is a lowborn wretch birthed by a palace maid. How dare you put us on the same level?”

Yuhe had thought I was certain to die.

What she had not expected was that, as the soldiers dragged me into the woods, we would run into the young lord of Qiangrong, Murong Jin, on his inspection rounds.

Murong Jin took a fancy to me.

He brought me back to his tent, and after spending the night with me, made me his concubine.

He was very fond of me. The moment we returned to Qiangrong, he elevated me to secondary consort.

The Qiangrong king was already old and frail, while Murong Jin was the most powerful man in the Western Regions. Tall and handsome besides, he was the man of countless women’s dreams.

Once he ascended the throne, I would become his pampered Noble Consort.

Yuhe, meanwhile, became a slave like the other noblewomen. She ate the same feed as the horses and had to labor before dawn, her hands covered in bloody blisters.

Yuhe was the empress’s only daughter and had never endured such hardship. Her hatred festered until, when I came to visit the slaves, she killed me.

…If she had not killed me, I would have freed all of them that very day.

Fortunately, we had both been reborn.

Yuhe followed the Qiangrong soldiers away in delight.

Before leaving, she leaned close and whispered in my ear, “Just watch. I will be far more favored than you ever were.”