Chapter 1

Chapter 1

I had always believed that Pei Yan and I loved each other.

In the ten years of our marriage, I stayed by his side as he rose from Deposed Crown Prince to the man above all others.

On countless nights, he would lace his fingers through mine while gasping for breath.

“Yuanyuan, I am so fortunate to have you.”

Until the imperial edict naming the Empress was issued-and the name written on it was not mine.

Song Zhiwei.

Ignoring the objections of the entire court, he insisted on making the widow of the Prince of Shu-my elder sister-his Empress.

“Yuanyuan, she is your sister, after all. We cannot let her suffer such an indignity.

“If she is not made Empress, are we supposed to have an elder sister kneel to her younger sister every day?”

At the time, he had looked at me as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

Just as he did now.

“Yuanyuan, she is your sister, after all. Are you really going to stand by and watch her die?”

That young man whose heart had once been filled with only me-I did not know when someone else had taken my place.

Song Zhiwei wanted the position of Empress, and he offered it to her with both hands.

Song Zhiwei was poisoned, and without the slightest hesitation, he wanted me to feed the gu with my own body.

“Feed the gu with your body.” Four simple words, so easily spoken.

But the one who fed it would have every bone, every drop of blood, gnawed by the gu for seven days and seven nights.

Only after that could a bowl of fresh blood be drawn, capable of curing a hundred poisons.

I looked at Pei Yan, my throat so tight and bitter that I could not speak.

Did he not know?

He knew.

That witch doctor had been found by him after every possible effort.

Yet even knowing what kind of torment it required, he still pressed on without hesitation, determined that I should raise that gu.

Because I was Song Zhiwei’s only younger sister.

My blood would have the greatest effect on Song Zhiwei.

“Yuanyuan, it is only the Forget-Sorrow Gu.”

Pei Yan lowered himself.

He crouched down, took my hand, and looked at me with eyes full of tenderness.

“You will suffer for a while, but you will forget all your sorrows. Is that not good?”

I swallowed down the metallic sweetness beneath my tongue and forced a smile.

“All right.”

To forget all my sorrows-what more could I ask for?

That evening, Song Zhiwei sent someone to summon me.

Just as Pei Yan wished.

When Song Zhiwei and I met, she did not have to kneel to me.

Instead, I knelt to her.

I knelt obediently on the floor while Song Zhiwei reclined against a low couch.

“I hear Younger Sister is willing to feed the gu with her own body to cure my poison?”

After three months in the palace, Song Zhiwei had been nourished into a fair, rosy beauty.

Before I could answer, she smiled sweetly.

“How hard this must be on you, Younger Sister.

“Mama Li, reward Younger Sister with the Child-Sending Guanyin His Majesty obtained for me last time.

“Oh, I nearly forgot. With Younger Sister’s current body, I am afraid even Guanyin herself would be helpless.”

She burst into a soft laugh, and the palace maids all followed with muffled giggles.

Look. This was my beloved elder sister, adored by everyone.

Father doted on her.

Because she had fallen gravely ill when I was born, he decided I had jinxed her.

So he cruelly sent me away to live on a country estate.

Mother pitied her.

Back then, it was she who had been betrothed to Pei Yan.

But after Pei Yan was deposed, she refused to marry him.

So Mother brought me back to the manor and had me marry in her place.

And now, even Pei Yan loved her.

“What has everyone laughing so happily?”

Speak of the devil.

Pei Yan strode into the hall.

The snickers stopped at once.

I kept my head lowered. “They were laughing at this barren hen of a consort, who will never be able to lay an egg.”

Pei Yan’s expression turned icy. “Insolence!”

The palace maids dropped to their knees in unison.

“Who told Consort Chen to kneel?

“I have said before that Consort Chen need not kneel even before me!

“Where did you get the nerve to-”

“Husband.” Song Zhiwei rose gracefully to her feet.

She tugged at Pei Yan’s sleeve. “Why be so fierce?”

“You have frightened the child in my belly.”

My lashes trembled.

I raised my eyes and saw Song Zhiwei coyly guiding Pei Yan’s hand toward her lower abdomen.

Pei Yan touched her belly with both caution and wonder.

Sensing my gaze, he looked over. His lips moved.

Then he turned his eyes away.