Chapter 1
Chapter 1
“Zhao Pingyan, Sister Xingle, get your ass out here!”
Outside the Hall of Grace, the peach blossoms were in vibrant bloom.
I had just been reborn, and the first thing I did was rush to the palace to scream like a shrew.
“Zhao Pingyan, I know you’re in there doing God-knows-what! Get dressed and get out here this instant!”
One of the palace doors slowly creaked open halfway.
A woman in a white robe, barefoot with her long hair flowing, leaned languidly against the doorframe, looking every bit the picture of sensual elegance.
A thin sheen of sweat coated her forehead as she used her slender fingers to tuck a stray lock of messy hair behind her ear.
“Song Yu, the kingdom hasn’t fallen yet. I am a princess, after all. What’s the point of all this shouting just because I’m handling some business?”
“If I didn’t shout, would you even be able to hear me over the racket you’re making?”
Zhao Pingyan lowered her eyes indifferently, twirling a strand of hair around her finger. After a long moment, she let out a click of her tongue.
“All thunder and no rain. They’re all useless things.”
I was completely speechless.
Zhao Pingyan was the current princess and my closest childhood friend.
Her father was the Emperor of the Southern Dynasty. In the year she was born, he harbored the ambition to eventually crush Yanbei, so he named her Pingyan-‘Leveler of Yan’.
However, that meaningful name had absolutely nothing to do with her actual personality.
After her coming-of-age ceremony, Zhao Pingyan chose a courtesy name for herself based on her own life’s ambitions.
Her courtesy name was Xingle-‘Pleasure’.
Her lifelong pursuit could be summarized in four words: carpe diem, or ‘seek pleasure while you can’.
Whenever she encountered a handsome man she liked, she had to get her hands on him for a bit of fun.
None of the noble ladies in the Capital City had ever seen someone like her. They all valued their reputations too much to associate with her.
I was the only true warrior among them, brave enough to face my inner desires and respond to her pursuits.
Later, she shared many of those handsome men with me.
Basically, as long as I liked one, she would give him to me.
There was even one time during a palace banquet when I took an extra look at the refined and handsome Crown Prince.
That very night, she sent her brother to my bed.
The Crown Prince spoke a bit strangely that night, acting as if he were half-maintaining his dignity and half-diving into the deep end.
“I heard that you like me,” he said. “While this is improper… it is not entirely out of the question.”
I understood immediately.
A double negative equals a positive.
So, I slept with him.
The next day, however, the man did a complete about-face.
The Crown Prince, Zhao Xiheng, demanded that I take responsibility and become his Crown Princess.
Looking at his face and remembering his performance from the night before, I thought it wasn’t something I couldn’t consider.
But when Zhao Pingyan heard about it, she stopped me dead in my tracks.
She said with righteous indignation, “If you give him an official title, how are we supposed to have fun in the future?”
She added that we were sisters, so her male concubines were mine to choose from as I pleased.
So, I rejected the Crown Prince.
“I can’t help it. Your sister offered too much.”
Zhao Xiheng went to settle the score with Zhao Pingyan in a fit of rage.
The siblings-one nineteen, the other sixteen-ended up in a brawl. They pulled hair and pinched ears, fighting all the way from Xuanwu Gate to Sheng’an Gate.
Those who didn’t know better would have thought they were fighting for the throne.
After their fight, things between the Crown Prince and me fizzled out.
Meanwhile, my relationship with Zhao Pingyan grew even closer.
How close?
Close enough that she literally drove me to my death in my past life.
And yet, having just been reborn, I still ran here to save her.
“My dear ancestor, the enemy troops are already at the palace gates! Everyone else has fled! Is this really the time to be ‘handling business’?”
Zhao Pingyan seemed to agree deeply as she grabbed my hand.
“Exactly! Time is running out, so we must seek pleasure while we still can!”
She pointed behind her.
Just like in my previous life, the Hall of Grace was filled with the scent of incense, and dozens of handsome male favorites were kneeling inside.
“These ones haven’t been ‘unwrapped’ yet. You’ve come at the perfect time to help me take half of them off my hands.”
I grabbed her and started to run.
“Do you want men or your life?”
Zhao Pingyan stumbled forward a couple of steps, braced herself against the palace door, and shoved me away with force.
“Song Yu, if you want to leave, then go! I can’t leave!”