Chapter 2

Chapter 2

I sat inside the carriage heading into the city.

The general drove the vehicle, his back to me, his voice devoid of any inflection as he spoke.

“Once we enter the city, I will provide you with a full set of lady’s belongings. From this moment on, you are Xie Lanzheng, the daughter of the Provincial Commander. I hope this year of lying low has prepared you enough so that you don’t give yourself away after entering the palace… It was a stroke of luck, really. I was still hesitating over whether or not to kill that young lady, but the landslide took care of that trouble for us.”

Outside the carriage, thunderclaps exploded one after another.

I gritted my teeth, refusing to let even a single tremor escape my lips.

Who could have imagined that a person’s circumstances could shift so drastically in an instant?

Two days ago, I was still the most precious, pampered, and elegant daughter of the Governor’s Mansion in the border city.

I lived a sheltered life, never stepping beyond the inner gates. My clothes were scented with incense before I wore them, and my bedding was ironed until not a single wrinkle remained before I retired for the night. I spent my days immersed in chess, the zither, calligraphy, and painting, living a life of privilege.

And now.

I was alone, a survivor of a disaster, covered in mud and looking utterly wretched. My body was riddled with small cuts that stung with cold and pain.

My life was in constant peril!

The carriage traveled through the heavy rain. From the general’s intermittent remarks, I began to understand my current predicament.

Everything had been triggered by my impending entry into the palace.

In the current era, rebel factions were springing up everywhere. Consequently, the imperial court had established a regulation: every local official of the second rank or higher had to select one adult child to be sent to the capital for three years. Sons were chosen as study companions, while daughters served the Empress Dowager.

It was called an imperial favor, but in reality, it was a system of checks and balances.

Other high officials usually chose the most overlooked child among their concubines’ offspring to send.

But my father, despite marrying my mother, Erniang, and Sanniang…

Had only ever fathered me.

Though I was pampered, I was not spoiled.

I knew that an imperial decree could not be defied, or it would put my entire family in danger. After a few bouts of weeping, I accepted the decree and set out on the road to the capital.

My maid, Bai Zhi, had entered the household a year ago.

She was the same age as me and shared a seventy to eighty percent resemblance to my features. When I first saw her, my mother even joked that from a distance, one truly couldn’t tell us apart.

She was usually quiet and obedient, handling her duties meticulously, and was soon promoted to be my personal maid.

Because of the rebels, entry and exit from the capital had been strictly monitored in recent years, not to mention that everyone entering the palace had to have their ancestry investigated back several generations.

Thus, as early as a year ago, this web of conspiracy had been silently woven around me, all for the purpose of usurping my identity to enter the palace today.

The general before me was a rebel.

So was Bai Zhi.

I didn’t know what these rebels intended to do by impersonating me to enter the palace, but it was surely an act of high treason-a crime punishable by beheading that would implicate my entire clan.

At the thought of this, I couldn’t help but shiver with lingering fear.

If not for that sudden landslide, I would likely be a corpse by now, and my father, my three mothers, and the more than one hundred people in the Governor’s Mansion would be facing total annihilation!

Tears overflowed uncontrollably.

Terror, panic, helplessness, and worry-a storm of complex emotions engulfed me. I desperately wished that everything I was experiencing was just a dream. I wanted to wake up tucked into the soft, fragrant quilts of my lady’s chamber, with maids chattering as they bustled in and out, and Erniang and Sanniang-one smiling, one cold-calling me to go pay my respects to my mother.

…

I closed my eyes, forcing myself to calm down.

The heavy rain fell like pearls, drumming against the roof of the carriage like the solemn, rapid beat of war drums before a battle.

I clenched my trembling fists and silently told myself:

Things haven’t reached the worst possible point yet.

Heaven has left a sliver of hope.

Xie Lanzheng, you cannot panic.