Chapter 2

Chapter 2

“In answer to Your Highness, I am of the Ruan Clan of Chenliu. My name is Yueying.”

That was how I introduced my family background.

Hu Mianmian often said she was miserable. She had entered the residence on the same day I had, yet the only time she could even see the Crown Prince was during morning greetings.

According to her, she had fallen in love with the young, handsome Crown Prince at first sight. She said he looked like the immortal young lord from her dreams. She also said that at least I had gotten to be a “dew-drop couple” with the Crown Prince once, while she could not even get near him. Hu Mianmian once tentatively asked me what it actually felt like to attend him in bed.

It seemed I could only answer her with silence. She was tactful enough to change the subject.

Makeup, pastries, and our Crown Princess, who was showered with every possible favor.

She truly was beautiful. No wonder the Crown Prince liked her. Otherwise, as the legitimate daughter of a mere fifth-rank official, what right did she have to rise above me, the daughter of the Chancellor’s Estate, and become Crown Princess?

She and the Crown Prince met at a Buddhist temple outside the palace. Our young, handsome Crown Prince took one look at her and was utterly lost. After returning to the palace, he staged a whole gifted-scholar-and-beautiful-maiden drama before the Emperor and Empress, insisting he would marry no one but her. His Highness the Crown Prince was the only son of the Emperor and Empress. The Emperor was frail, and this was his only heir, so naturally they indulged his every wish. And so I, who was originally meant to be made Crown Princess, could only become a Side Consort instead.

Imperial grace was vast and boundless. So boundless it swept me straight down from a hundred-foot height.

Still, I did not dislike her. A woman with true confidence never treats another woman as an imaginary enemy. She looked delicate and spoke gently. Added to her beauty, it made me feel as if any negative feeling toward her would only come across as jealousy.

Her smile was truly lovely, like drifting clouds beside a bright moon. Her figure was slender and graceful, as though the wind itself pushed her along. Most beautiful of all were her brows and eyes. What I saw in them was the faint glow of mountains on the horizon and the ripples stirred by a boat crossing a lake.

But there was one thing wrong with her: those beautiful brows and eyes were always furrowed. In that tender gaze, there was always a trace of evasion. Hu Mianmian said the Crown Princess must be in poor health.

But I understood why. The Empress, who came from a great noble house, had always minded her family background. On top of that, there was me, a Side Consort of noble birth with both looks and refinement. The pressure on her as the one managing the household affairs would naturally double. If she did well, no one except the Crown Prince would praise her; they would only think it was the effort she ought to make up for her lacking birth. If she did poorly, people would say that someone from a humble family simply could not belong in refined society. Every time she made a mistake, some bored busybody would drag me into it, saying that if I were the Primary Consort, I definitely would not have made such an error.

…I thank them for thinking so highly of me.

I must explain this very solemnly: those people were really not hired by me! I wished I could hide away in the Eastern Palace. My greatest ambition was to be a wealthy idler just like that.

Yet the Crown Princess unexpectedly possessed a generous heart. Every time I went to pay my respects, she would ask Hu Mianmian and me for our opinions on internal affairs. She even suggested giving me authority to assist her in managing them. Of course I refused. First, the Crown Princess had not even grown familiar with those affairs yet; if I barged in at that point, I would be far too tactless. Second, I truly could not be bothered to manage anything! But after so much back-and-forth and daily discussion, the three of us actually became friends.

It turned out the Crown Princess loved sweets just like I did, and found needlework as much of a headache as Hu Mianmian did. She liked small animals just like I did, and was as obsessed with the Crown Prince’s good looks as Hu Mianmian.

Every time the conversation turned to the Crown Prince, our Hu Mianmian, Hu Liangdi, would immediately come alive. And I would instantly shut my mouth, pick at my fingers, and steer the topic as far away as the horizon.

No matter how handsome and elegant the Crown Prince was, standing there like a jade tree in the wind, he was not someone I wished to observe up close.

No one else in this world could match his terrible conduct after drinking or how quickly he changed faces.

I had one childish, naive wish. I hoped the rest of my life could pass just like this. Just the three of us: they would bear children for the Crown Prince, while I would be in charge of playing with cats and dogs and teasing Hu Mianmian. Along the way, I could even dote a little on the children who did not look too much like the Crown Prince.

Perhaps it was because I had been in such a good mood lately, but I ate well and slept well. Every day, aside from eating, I slept. Yet before long, I could not keep anything down. Whatever I ate, I threw up. Hu Mianmian tried every possible way to make food for me, but I still vomited. She clung to the Crown Princess, Qin Yunnong, and sobbed, saying I was going to die. Someone who usually ate so heartily had suddenly become unable to eat a thing.

In the end, our Crown Princess was the steadier one. She asked my personal maid, Rong Niang, about my monthly courses, then immediately summoned an imperial physician for me.

For the past two months, I had spent every day eating, drinking, playing, and enjoying myself so thoroughly that who could still be bothered to keep track of monthly courses? I carefully counted the days, then cried out that I was finished.

I might have to give birth to that bastard Crown Prince’s child.