Chapter 1

It was only after my half-sister’s relentless questioning that I learned the nobleman I had saved was the Crown Prince.

A year earlier, he had been poisoned while traveling. Blinded and alone, he had ended up stranded among the common people.

Ever since returning to the capital, he had been searching for the woman who saved his life.

Every young noblewoman in the city was green with envy. The Crown Prince was handsome and gracious, a man of rare bearing. Who would not dream of marrying into the Eastern Palace and becoming Crown Princess?

My half-sister exclaimed, “To think such good fortune would fall into my lap!”

My brother was equally delighted. “Wonderful! Langyue, once you become Crown Princess, the Lin family will rise with you.”

My mother stammered, “B-but Yupu was the one who saved His Highness. She should be the Crown Princess.”

My half-sister slapped her across the face.

“My maternal grandmother married you into the Lin family so you could serve my brother and me,” she sneered. “Did you honestly think the bastard you birthed could compare with the legitimate daughter of this house?”

She struck hard enough for her nails to leave a bloody scratch on my mother’s cheek.

I said nothing. I simply drove my forehead straight into my half-sister’s nose.

Blood poured out at once.

Clutching her nose, she shrieked, “Someone! Beat this wretched servant to death!”

Three maids rushed at me.

I snatched up the heavy armchair beside me and hurled it at them. It split heads and drew blood. None dared come any closer.

I swung another chair like a war hammer and roared, “Who else wants to try?”

My brother shrank into the corner like a frightened quail.

“I haven’t seen this fool in years, so I almost forgot,” my half-sister said, shaken. “She has brute strength and something wrong with her head. If she hadn’t gone missing during the Lantern Festival, Father would have locked her in a Taoist convent long ago.”

Just then, my father returned from court.

He took in the chaos and asked enough questions to learn what had happened.

My mother held me in her arms, her face wet with tears. “My lord, have mercy. Please spare Yupu.”

After a moment’s thought, Father said, “Yupu, tell your sister exactly how you saved the Crown Prince. You have done the Lin family a service today. We will not treat you unfairly.”

My half-sister pouted. “Father! She broke my nose. Are you really going to let her off?”

Father frowned and ordered me to kneel in the ancestral hall as punishment.

I shook my head. “No. I’m hungry. Feed me.”

Father, my brother, and my half-sister stared at me in shock. Apparently, none of them had imagined that a person might simply disobey Father’s command.

When no one spoke, I helped myself to the pastries on the table.

They watched me as though I had grown a second head.

“Do you want some too?” I asked crisply. “I’m not sharing with bad people like you.”

Then I took one bite out of every pastry.

Father rubbed his brow. “Enough. Why are you arguing with a fool?”

He waved us away in disgust and told Mother to take me back to her room.

The moment we were alone, her legs gave out.

She sank to the floor and wept. “Yupu, my foolish child! Why did you come back?”