Chapter 1

Chapter 1

My name is Lin Qingzhong. My mother is Marquess Jingyuan.

Mother said she gave me this name so everyone would know exactly what the Lin family was worth.

After all, I was born strong enough to lift a cauldron. I went to war at fifteen, and by seventeen I had taken up my mother’s spear and swept across the border cities, undefeated in battle.

Mother said our family held too much power. She feared that one day, when our usefulness had run out, we would meet the fate of hounds boiled after the hunt. The safest thing, she said, would be for me to marry an unfavored imperial prince.

I refused. I wanted to marry the Little Cook from the barracks.

Not only was the Little Cook’s food unmatched, he could swing a pair of meteor hammers with even more force. More importantly, he was beautiful.

Most importantly of all, we had already exchanged tokens of love. He gave me a gold hairpin and a dagger. I gave him a silk handkerchief and a jade ring.

But to my surprise, on the day I entered the capital to receive my title, the beautiful Little Cook was there too.

I dropped to my knees at once, pointed at the Little Cook, and said with perfect seriousness, “Your Majesty, I am carrying his child, and he said he would marry me!

“I beg Your Majesty to grant us a marriage!”

If I married a cook, surely the Old Emperor would stop suspecting my family of disloyal ambitions.

To my shock, the eunuch beside the emperor was so frightened that his horsetail whisk fell from his hand. “Young General, mind your words! This is the Second Prince!”

Just as my brain tied itself into knots, a faint, eerie voice drifted over from behind me. “Whose child are you carrying?

“Isn’t your stomach full of roast duck, braised chicken, candied hawthorns, red bean pastries, dried sweet potatoes…”

I hurriedly turned to look at the handsome man rushing in with a pair of meteor hammers in hand, then looked back at the expressionless Second Prince.

Why did these two look exactly the same?

Unfortunately, my mouth moved faster than my brain. “Reporting to Your Majesty, if that one won’t marry me, this one will do!”

The old eunuch nearly threw his whisk in my face. “Mind your words! This is the Crown Prince!

“The Crown Prince and the Second Prince are twins!”

This time, I was the one who objected. I knelt ramrod straight. “In that case, there is another cook in my camp who can also use meteor hammers. I will marry him instead.”

The Second Prince slowly raised his hand. “This son is that cook.”

The Crown Prince tossed the pair of meteor hammers at my feet. “This son is the one who can use meteor hammers.”

The Second Prince curled his lips in a sinister smile and took a jade pendant from inside his robes. “This son and General Lin have already pledged ourselves to each other in private.”

Not to be outdone, the Crown Prince pulled a silk handkerchief embroidered with an iron hammer from his sleeve. “This is the token of love General Lin gave this son.”

The hall fell into dead silence. The only sound was my two legs knocking together.

“I-I-I truly did not recognize that you were two different princes!!!”

I pulled out the gold hairpin and dagger they had given me. “I thought one man loved me so deeply that he gave me two treasures for one pledge!”

The Old Emperor wore the expression of a man thoroughly enjoying the spectacle. “I have always been fair. Why not split Young General Lin in two and give each of them half?”

My legs shook even harder. My mind filled with images of myself divided into a left half and a right half, then an upper half and a lower half.

Mother, you were the one with the long game after all. Shengjing really is a dangerous place that eats people alive!