An accident while tasting medicine for the Noble Consort left me disfigured.
She arranged for me to marry the Fifth Prince, who had been stripped of his rank and reduced to a commoner.
The Fifth Prince did not like me.
He despised my ugliness and the shame it brought him. He never acknowledged me as his wife.
I knew better than to press myself on him, so I stayed out of his sight as much as possible.
Other people treated my disfigurement as an insult to him.
But I could not think of myself as something filthy.
Later, after painstaking effort, the Fifth Prince regained his rank and gradually won the emperor’s favor.
Everyone came to congratulate him.
Even my parents arrived with my younger sister, hoping to secure her a place among his women.
“Aqiao, you can’t possibly attend to His Highness looking like that.”
“If someone is going to benefit, it might as well be one of our own family.”
“His Highness likes your sister, too. Look for yourself if you don’t believe us.”
The Fifth Prince really did like her.
He allowed her to stay by his side, grinding ink, cleaning his inkstone, and keeping him company in his study.
Whenever he brought gifts home, there was always something for her.
He even let her choose first from the gifts bestowed by the palace.
Everyone said she was certain to become his secondary consort one day.
She thought so, too.
Yet he never formally took her as a concubine.
I no longer wanted to wait, either. I asked for a divorce.
For a moment, the Fifth Prince looked distracted. Then he asked quietly:
“Are you serious?”
