Chapter 2

I had thought that a man as cold and unfeeling as Cui Qingyi

would surely make me taste the bitter fruit of forcing him to marry me.

Yet after I married him in my previous life, my days were happy.

During the nuptial wine ceremony on our wedding night, that rigid, proper man deliberately lowered his own cup and held mine high in a gesture of respect.

Marriage did not rid me of the habits I had developed in my maiden chamber.

I loved the popular storybooks sold in town, so I secretly sent servants to buy them for me.

When Cui Qingyi caught me with them, he frowned. “You should be studying the books on women’s virtues. What will become of you if you lose yourself in such frivolous things?”

But later, whenever he practiced calligraphy or read, the books I loved would always appear on his desk. He even asked people far and wide to seek out rare storybooks for me.

My mother-in-law disapproved of me and constantly made things difficult when I first entered the household.

I never complained to Cui Qingyi. Then one night, while we were intimate, his hand brushed the wound on my knee.

He threw on a robe and examined it for a long while by candlelight. Then he sat beside the bed for just as long.

At last, he tucked the covers around me. “Go to sleep.”

The next day, Cui Qingyi, who had never once defied his mother, demanded justice for me.

I was never forced to kneel or subjected to her torments again.

Back then, Cui Qingyi and I could truly have been called a loving and devoted couple.

He painted my brows in the mornings, and we listened to rain beneath the gallery eaves.

Yet this was the man—the very man I had believed loved me deeply—

who ultimately handed me over to someone else.

In the third year after the new emperor, Xie Yuan, seized the throne, Cui Qingyi took me into the palace for a banquet.

One glance at the emperor upon the high dais sent a violent shudder through me.

After the banquet, I gripped Cui Qingyi’s hand and told myself I must have been mistaken.

But three days later, rain came crashing down, and the wind roared in my ears.

I had never seen Cui Qingyi like that. The man who had always stood as graceful and immaculate as a jade tree was drenched and wretched for the first time in his life.

He burst into the room and pinned me against the vanity.

His fingers closed around my face, his thumb grinding over my skin. Lightning flared, making him look like a specter.

“Why…” I heard the agony in his voice.

A terrible suspicion had already taken shape. Tears spilling from my eyes, I looked at him. “Husband, don’t…”

He crushed me to his chest so tightly it felt as though my bones would splinter.

“Don’t be afraid. It’s all right. Don’t be afraid, my darling.” His voice was hoarse as he stroked and patted my back again and again.

I thought the danger had passed.

But that day, he took me out into the city. When we reached an alley,

he said he was going to buy my favorite osmanthus cakes.

I suspected nothing and simply nodded. “Then hurry back. I’ll wait for you.”

Cui Qingyi never returned.

What came instead was a sedan chair from the palace.

That day, the young madam of the Cui family died, and a new Consort Shu appeared within the palace walls.