Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Tuoba Lu arrived just as I had finished bathing.

The palace servants tactfully withdrew at once, and I stepped forward submissively to help him undress.

He carried the familiar scent of wine-the White Falling Spring that had just been sent as annual tribute from my homeland, Southern Tang.

I was also tribute, sent here three years ago.

Back then, five thousand Southern Tang tribute maidens were sent into the camps of the Northern Liang cavalry to serve as playthings for their soldiers.

I had intended to end my own life before I could be defiled, but Tuoba Lu chose me.

Clad in iron armor, with small braids at his temples and his hair tied in a high ponytail, he was exceptionally handsome.

Though he was as young as I was, his murderous aura was heavier than anyone else’s around him.

He used his riding crop to lift my chin; the coarse leather chafed my skin, causing a dull ache.

“Mine,” he said.

Those two words sent the Northern Liang soldiers who had been fighting over me scurrying back, silenced by fear.

At the time, I didn’t know he was the Little Prince of Northern Liang, nor did I know he had chosen me because I resembled his beloved.

I only had an intuition that he could lead me out of that sea of misery.

In the military tent that night, I clumsily tried to please him.

He covered my eyes and told me to call him Ah Lu.

Today, the wine he drank was White Falling Spring. It carried too many of my memories, and I couldn’t help but lean closer to him.

He didn’t say much either, simply carrying me to the bed.

I heard from the servants today that his beloved, who was far away at the border, had given birth to twins-a boy and a girl.

So I expected him to come. After all, every time news of that woman arrived, he would come to me.

He would treat me as her, taking everything he wanted, pouring out all his longing.

The next morning, once he was sober, there would be a bowl of contraceptive medicine and a confinement order.

The other Tribute Maidens who had come with me would often pity me when they saw the bruises on my body. “Yue Niang, you’ve suffered so much.”

They pitied me for being treated this way, and pitied me even more for being that woman’s body double.

I told them I wasn’t suffering.

But they didn’t believe me. The men of Northern Liang were tall and sturdy, lacking the tenderness of Southern Tang men, leaving the girls in constant pain.

But I was telling the truth.

I wasn’t suffering.

Because I was using Tuoba Lu as a substitute, too.

He looked so much like my beloved, and even their names sounded the same when spoken aloud.

Being with him felt like being with my Chenglu.

My Chenglu, however, was already dead.