Chapter 1

Chapter 1

When I was escorted into the Hall of Golden Chimes, Bai Xiuzhu had just changed out of his blood-stained court robes.

He had been on the throne for only three days. The dragon chair still smelled of fresh lacquer, yet it could not mask the scent of blood lingering in the hall. The Imperial Guard stood in grim formation, their blades and armor gleaming coldly. Civil and military officials knelt across the floor, everyone waiting for me-the “traitorous daughter of a disgraced official”-to be brought to justice.

Rong Yingxue stood below the vermilion steps, dressed in snow-white palace attire with an Eastern Pearl pinned in her hair. Her eyes were red from crying, as if she had suffered a great grievance. Seeing me being brought in, she took a step aside and spoke softly.

“Miss Jiang, His Majesty has treated you with no small kindness. Why did you go so far as to attempt an assassination during the enthronement ceremony?”

I didn’t look at her; I only looked at the man on the dragon chair.

Bai Xiuzhu sat very straight, his complexion so pale it was nearly translucent, his chest wrapped in layers of white gauze. Those were the wounds I had personally bandaged for him yesterday. When he was struck in the heart by a poisoned needle, every imperial physician in the hall said he was beyond saving. It was I who bit my tongue and cut my wrists, feeding him my blood mouthful by mouthful to drag him back from the gates of hell.

But the way he looked at me now was as if he were looking at a strange and repulsive instrument of torture.

“Jiang Wentang,” he began, his voice chillingly cold. “Do you plead guilty?”

My throat tightened. After a long silence, I asked softly, “Does Your Majesty truly not recognize me anymore?”

His brow furrowed slightly, as if pricked by something, but the expression quickly faded.

“Why should I recognize you?”

When those words fell, I actually felt a sense of relief.

It was the third time.

So it turned out that by the third time the Forgetfulness Gu took hold, it truly could erase a person so completely. It wasn’t just forgetting a piece of the past or a promise; it was that even when looking at me, his heart no longer felt a single pang of pain.

An imperial censor immediately stepped forward from the ranks and read the charges aloud.

“The criminal servant Jiang Wentang was originally the daughter of the traitor Jiang Hong. She was sent to the Yeting after her father’s clan was implicated in the Southern Border Treason Case. Skilled in poison and pharmacology, she infiltrated the Eastern Palace for years. During the enthronement ceremony, she took advantage of her proximity while serving medicine to attempt an assassination with a poisoned needle. Furthermore, secret letters from the Southern Borderlands, Gu sand, and a hidden rubbing of a military tally were found in her quarters. The evidence is irrefutable. We request that Your Majesty execute her according to the law as a warning to others.”

Every sentence was half-truth and half-lie.

It was true that I understood pharmacology.

It was also true that Gu sand and secret letters were found in my room.

But those things were planted by Rong Yingxue’s people last night while I was unconscious.

I didn’t defend myself.

Because I knew that even if Bai Xiuzhu were willing to listen right now, I couldn’t explain it. The Forgetfulness Gu wasn’t ordinary amnesia; it would forcibly devour the deepest, most significant thread of affection in the victim’s heart. The first time, he forgot the appearance of the Late Empress on her deathbed. The second time, he forgot the marriage vows we exchanged at the frontier. And now, the third time, he had forgotten me.

Why would a man who doesn’t even have “me” in his memory believe me?

Rong Yingxue raised her handkerchief, tears trembling on her lashes. “Your subject’s daughter saw her guarding His Majesty’s bedside last night and thought she was being loyal. Who knew that while your subject’s daughter was away brewing a bowl of medicine, your subject’s daughter would return to find His Majesty’s poison flaring up, with Miss Jiang still clutching that poisoned needle. If the imperial physicians hadn’t arrived quickly, your subject’s daughter truly wouldn’t dare to imagine…”

At this point, her voice choked up, and she knelt down.

“Your subject’s daughter dares not speak recklessly; I only pray that His Majesty takes care of his dragon body.”

The entire hall immediately followed suit.

“We pray Your Majesty punishes her severely!”

“We pray Your Majesty executes the traitorous servant!”

Listening to those shouts, I suddenly remembered a time at the frontier when Bai Xiuzhu had caught a cold. His fever wouldn’t break at night, and his whole body shook with the heat, yet he still gripped my hand tightly, refusing to let go.

Back then, half-dreaming and half-awake, he had whispered my name: “Wentang.”

I leaned over to answer him.

He said, “Don’t leave. I’m afraid that when I wake up, I won’t remember who I’m supposed to love.”

Now, he truly didn’t remember.

I lowered my eyes and let out a small smile.

“Since Your Majesty has determined I am guilty, then please, bestow my punishment.”

The hall fell silent for a moment.

Likely no one expected that I wouldn’t even offer a defense.

Bai Xiuzhu stared at me, a very faint flicker of something strange crossing his eyes. It was as if he was made uncomfortable by my words, but that discomfort was quickly suppressed.
He asked, “Do you have nothing to say for yourself?”

“I do.”

I looked up at him. My voice was soft, yet loud enough to carry through the entire hall.

“Your Majesty has an old arrow wound beneath the third rib. On the webbing of your right hand, there are thin calluses from years of drawing a bow. Every thunderous, rainy night, your old poison flares up, and you require someone to stay by your side until dawn so you won’t wake from your dreams in fright. You dislike medicine that is too bitter, so before you drink it, you always suck on half a candied plum. And-”

I paused, watching his face turn abruptly pale, and spoke each word with deliberate weight:

“In the past, what you feared most was forgetting me.”

The great hall went deathly still.

Bai Xiuzhu’s fingertips clenched tight, veins standing out on the back of his hand. In that instant, something like shattered fragments flashed through his eyes-so quick it was impossible to catch.

But Rong Yingxue immediately slid forward on her knees, her voice shaking.

“Your Majesty, that Jiang woman is skilled in medicine. Of course she could learn such things. Right now she is only relying on the fact that she once attended you at close range to deliberately confuse Your Majesty!”

Bai Xiuzhu closed his eyes. When he opened them again, there was only the decisive chill an emperor was supposed to have.

“Jiang Wentang, for the crimes of assassination and treason, the evidence is conclusive.”

He picked up the vermilion brush from the imperial desk.

“Escort her to the Imperial Prison. In three days, she will be beheaded at the Meridian Gate.”

When the vermilion brush came down, I heard the taut string that had held for seven years inside me finally snap.

I didn’t look at him again. As the Imperial Guard dragged me out of the Hall of Golden Chimes, all I heard was Rong Yingxue sobbing softly behind me, and the full hall of ministers chanting, “Your Majesty is wise.”

How laughable.

Yesterday I used my own blood to save him. Today he sentenced me to death with his own hand.

The Imperial Prison was cold and damp, the stench of mildew seeping from the cracks in the walls.

That night, Eunuch Chang came to see me in secret.

He was an old servant left behind by the Late Empress, and one of the few people in this world who knew about the Forgetfulness Gu in Bai Xiuzhu’s body. Seeing my hands and feet shackled, he wept, his voice forced down to a whisper.

“My lady, why didn’t you tell the truth? His Majesty is being deceived by the Rong Family. If you would only speak about that wooden box-”

I shook my head.

“If I say it, it will only make him die faster.”

Eunuch Chang froze.

I pushed my sleeves up.

On the inside of my wrists, old wounds overlapped new ones, crisscrossing until there was barely a patch of unbroken skin.

“The third time I took blood, the Gu had already followed his heart meridians and bitten into his spiritual core. If I force the memories it swallowed back awake, the Gu will backlash and recoil into his heart. He won’t live longer than half an hour.”

Eunuch Chang’s eyes reddened at once.

“Even so, you can’t just throw your life away.”

“It isn’t thrown away,” I said softly.

“On the west bank of Taiye Pond, inside the mouth of the third stone beast, there is a wooden box. Inside are the Jiang Family’s old case files, and the ledgers of the Rong Family’s secret dealings with the Southern Borderlands over the years. After I die, deliver it to His Majesty for me.”

Eunuch Chang stared. “Why wait until you’re dead?”

I fell silent for a moment before I answered.

“Because as long as I’m alive, Rong Yingxue will be afraid. She’s afraid I’ll reveal the truth, and she’s afraid His Majesty will one day remember something. She won’t allow those ledgers to reach the imperial presence safely. Only when I’m dead will she believe the outcome is settled-and only then will she loosen her grip.”

“Besides…”

I lifted my eyes to the pitifully small skylight overhead.

“He has already forgotten me. To him now, I am nothing more than the daughter of a criminal official, a woman who deserves to die. If I insist on laying our past before him, it will only make him despise me even more.”

Eunuch Chang turned his face away and wiped at his tears.

Before he left, I called to him.

“Eunuch, if there’s still a chance, ask him one question for me.”

“Please say it, my lady.”

“Ask him-if one day he remembers everything, will he regret it?”

Eunuch Chang didn’t answer. He only nodded hard.

But I knew.

There would never be such a day.

And even if there were,

it would be far too late.