Chapter 4

Chapter 4

At this moment.

I rested my chin on my hand. “At that time, I truly felt I had been deeply wronged.”

That year, I was only thirteen. I was diligent and studious, and I hadn’t even stepped foot outside the palace gates.

Upon hearing this, Cui Tao said, “Even in the capital, your servant heard that when the Princess was young, you were first-rate in everything, whether it was the classics, history, strategy, or horsemanship and archery.”

I smiled. “Yes, I was quite proud of myself when I was a child.”

Back then, I was truly arrogant, always believing I could achieve what others could not.

With the ambition of youth, I wanted to overturn the heavens and earth.

Until my Mother Empress was ordered to commit suicide.

The wall protecting me collapsed with a roar, revealing the world in its harshest reality.

“Only then did I realize that I was a thorn in their side.”

After leaving the palace, I was hunted by my brothers and sisters.

Among them, the Eleventh Imperial Sister, born to the Noble Consort, was the most relentless.

I escaped her clutches six times.

Until the seventh.

After days and nights of fleeing, sleeping in the wild and braving the elements, I fell ill. Her people finally caught me.

I still remember her sitting in a small sedan chair adorned with peacock feathers, looking utterly triumphant.

She said to me, “If I let you escape this time, I’ll take your surname!”

I felt helpless and asked her, “It’s one thing to be ugly, but why are you so stupid?”

Enraged, she rushed forward, grabbed my hair, and began to kick and punch me.

I asked her how I had ever offended her.

Even if our mothers were political rivals, her mother had won, hadn’t she?

To my surprise, she actually said, “Because you always outshone me.”

She felt that the times her mother scolded her for being useless, and the times our Imperial Father and Imperial Brother ignored her, were all because of me.

“Fortunately, your mother is dead, Imperial Father doesn’t want you anymore, and even Imperial Brother belongs to me now.”

In that moment, I was stunned.

I, Feng Yun’an, was actually going to be beaten to death for a reason like that?!

So, I stabbed her where it hurt: “Stop dreaming. The one Imperial Brother has always loved most is me.”

This infuriated her so much she beat me even more desperately.

This useless girl used to skip school all the time.

She was almost never seen during the afternoon horsemanship and archery lessons.

After hitting and cursing at me for a long while, she ran out of strength.

That was when I took her hostage.

And I escaped.

Later, I was forced to flee into the mountains, where I lived like a savage for three years.

It wasn’t until I was sixteen that I tumbled down a cliff and was saved by Xie Canghuai, eventually becoming his wife.

At that time, it happened that Imperial Father died suddenly, and Imperial Brother ascended the throne.

Imperial Brother’s people found me with unerring precision.

They brought me a handwritten note containing only three sentences:

“Since you are already married, be a virtuous wife and mother.”

“Do not enter the palace to claim kinship.”

“I would sooner leave the throne to a dog than to you.”

Misfortunes never come singly.

Shiyi followed the trail and found me as well.

She sent men disguised as mountain bandits to kidnap the Xie mother and son.