Chapter 2

Chapter 2

When I was ten, Yanzhou fell. I joined the refugees heading south toward the Capital.

While passing through the outskirts of Qingzhou, walking along the river, I spotted a figure drifting in the water.

I dove into the bone-chilling river and slowly swam back to shore with an unconscious boy on my back.

At the time, I didn’t know that the pale boy I pulled from the water was His Highness the Crown Prince, living in exile among the common people.

We depended on each other for survival, begging our way along the road and struggling to stay alive for over three years.

Zhao Xizhen was incredibly thin-skinned. If I asked him to knock on a door for food, he could stand there for an hour without being able to open his mouth.

So, it was always me who went begging, coming back to share whatever I found with him.

Occasionally, a vendor closing their stall would kindly give me a steamed bun. I would tuck it into my clothes to keep it warm and carefully bring it back to him.

Once, he took a bite so hungrily that he started choking.

I rushed to give him water.

His face turned red from coughing as he gripped my hand and gazed at me.

“Ah Yu, once we reach the Capital, I’ll treat you to much better food.”

I replied, “Alright. We’ll both find work and earn lots and lots of silver.”

That was the extent of my ambition.

Who could have guessed that once we entered the Capital’s borders, he would become the high and mighty Crown Prince?

Outside the city gates, he knelt to request an imperial decree, asking the Emperor to recognize me as his adopted daughter. He welcomed me into the palace to live and conferred upon me the title of Commandery Princess Changyi.

In the beginning, the Crown Prince treated me exceptionally well.

But before long, rumors about how we had begged our way to the Capital began to spread, and they were impossible to quell.

The people in the palace didn’t dare slander the Crown Prince, so they turned their spears toward me, giving rise to even more vulgar gossip.

That was the first time Zhao Xizhen lost his temper, punishing quite a few people.

He came to visit me that night.

“Ah Yu, you are a Commandery Princess. As long as you carry yourself with dignity and learn the palace etiquette, no one will be able to give you a hard time.”

“Why must I stay in the palace?” I asked.

I lowered my head and cast my eyes down.

“They just want to drive me away. I’ll just leave.”

“For me, Ah Yu.”

I looked up at him, startled.

He placed his hand against my face, his gaze incredibly earnest.

“I want you by my side. If you do not leave me, I will never abandon you.”

After saying those words, he leaned in for a gentle kiss.

He seemed to know even before I did that my heart and eyes were full of nothing but love for him.

Unfortunately, rumors are wounding things.

I learned the etiquette and the rules, but he grew tired of defending me. From public view to private life, he gradually distanced himself from me.

Looking into the eyes of the man I loved, my chest tightened with a bitter ache.

“Zhao Xizhen, I’m leaving.”

A cold voice reached my ears.

“Where do you think you’re going?”

I jolted awake from the dream.

Zhao Xizhen was sitting by the bed, applying medicine to the side of my face, staring at me coldly.

“You are Commandery Princess Changyi. Where else could you possibly want to go?”