Chapter 4

Chapter 4

When the Emperor was sixteen, I stayed with him in Qiangrong as both his guard and his maid.

Life was bitter in those days.

The people of Qiangrong knew that only the least favored prince would be sent there as a hostage, so they bullied us constantly. Ignorant noble children even threw rotten fruit at us.

“Hey, your emperor daddy doesn’t want you anymore!”

The Emperor-back then, he was still Third Prince Chu Lancheng-let the fruit strike him in the chest. His expression was one of extreme restraint. I drew my blade to teach those children a lesson, but he stopped me at once.

“Ah Lan, there’s no need to start a conflict.”

Later, it was a girl in a water-blue dress who chased those noble children away.

She ran over and handed her handkerchief to Chu Lancheng.

There were Qiangrong characters embroidered in the corner of the handkerchief. Neither Chu Lancheng nor I could read them, so we stared at it.

“Stop looking,” she said. “That’s my name. Mingyue.”

Princess Mingyue was the only daughter of the King of Qiangrong and his queen. Her status was extraordinarily noble. With her protection, we were finally no longer bullied.

During that year or so, we did have a beautiful time.

We went hunting together by the lake outside the city, then roasted the rabbits we caught by the water as the sun set. When the moon first rose, Princess Mingyue would dance beneath the moonlight, while Chu Lancheng sat to the side and accompanied her on the xiao.

Princess Mingyue loved water-blue dresses most. She said blue was the color of the sky, the color of lakes, and the color of the most radiant gemstones.

Whenever she danced, that shade of blue was all there was in Chu Lancheng’s eyes.

Princess Mingyue clearly liked Chu Lancheng as well. At sixteen, Chu Lancheng was the most outstanding young man in the world, carrying an air of refinement and nobility, like a piece of jade polished to exquisite perfection.

The men of Qiangrong were obsessed with hunting and martial contests, but Chu Lancheng would hold Princess Mingyue’s hand and teach her, word by word, to write the poetry of the Central Plains.

“May your heart be like mine, and I will never fail this longing.”

Fifteen-year-old Princess Mingyue fell completely.

She went to beg her royal father to grant them a marriage. The King of Qiangrong was furious. Countless noble young men in Qiangrong wanted to marry the beautiful and brave Princess Mingyue, yet his precious daughter wanted to marry a Wu Dynasty hostage prince with no standing.

When her father refused, Princess Mingyue knelt outside the hall. She knelt there for three full days without a drop of water, until she finally fainted before the palace hall.

The King of Qiangrong’s heart softened.

That day, Princess Mingyue was the happiest person in the world. She thought she had finally gotten her wish, that she would marry the young man she loved most.

Unfortunately, she did not know that from the moment he appeared, what that young man wanted was the lives of her entire clan.

War broke out on the day of their wedding.

Chu Lancheng, the groom with a huge red flower pinned to his chest, suddenly shot a poisoned dart from his sleeve. The dart struck the King of Qiangrong squarely in the chest. The old man, who had been waiting for his daughter and son-in-law to drink their wedding wine, died on the spot.

Then battle cries erupted on all sides, and the Wu Dynasty hidden guards who had already lain in ambush poured out in full force.

Princess Mingyue froze where she stood. She looked at Chu Lancheng as though she no longer recognized him.

The next instant, a loyal guard yanked her away from Chu Lancheng’s side.

“Protect Princess Mingyue!”

Chu Lancheng stood in place. He watched the people of Qiangrong and the people of the Wu Dynasty slaughter each other all around him, excitement and pain both flickering in his eyes.

The excitement was because the plan he had hidden for years had finally succeeded in that moment. He would go from an unfavored prince to the undisputed heir apparent.

And the pain was-

He lowered his voice and said to me, standing guard at his side,

“Go after Princess Mingyue. Remember… don’t take her life.”

Unfortunately, it was already too late. Once tragedy had been forged, no one could change its ending.

When he found Princess Mingyue, the girl who had once shone so brightly was already a corpse. In the flames of war, she had been struck by a burning wooden door. By the time she was discovered, her face had been charred black, and her body was covered in blade wounds and arrow wounds.

Even in death, she was still wearing her bright red wedding robes.

When she was buried, Chu Lancheng did not go to mourn her. The goal of becoming heir apparent was within reach; he could not show even the slightest attachment to a princess of an enemy nation.

Later, Chu Lancheng returned to the capital of the Wu Dynasty, and no one ever mentioned Princess Mingyue’s name again. Sometimes, when I thought of that girl, I felt as if she had been a dream from our youth.

Chu Lancheng’s Harem remained empty for many years.

From the moment I was bestowed upon him, everyone assumed I would become his woman, but he never married me.

So that night, I put on water-blue clothes and danced beneath the moonlight.

He came up behind me. I looked back at him. It had been many years since I had last seen tears shimmer in his eyes.

I walked forward, knelt, and lifted my face.

Back in Qiangrong, people had said I looked somewhat like Princess Mingyue-we both had high noses and deep-set eyes, a bright beauty edged with heroic spirit. We had both practiced martial arts since childhood, and even our figures looked similar.

I knew that in the hazy moonlight, I must have looked eighty percent like Princess Mingyue.

He crouched down and looked at me hesitantly.

Then he slowly leaned closer and kissed me.

The next day, we woke on the bed. He looked at me in silence.

“Ah Lan, you have suffered all these years.”

I lowered my eyes and showed him a calm, gentle smile.

“I do not feel it was suffering. Whatever the Emperor likes, I am willing to do it.”

Chu Lancheng was silent for a long time. In the end, he touched my face.

One month later, I was finally named Empress.