I ruined my face while tasting medicine for the imperial consort.
The consort, acting out of generosity, married me to the Fifth Prince after he had been reduced to a commoner.
The Fifth Prince never liked me.
He despised my ruined face, hated the shame it brought him, and never once acknowledged me as his wife.
I knew how to read the room, so I stayed out of his way as much as possible and tried not to deepen his disgust.
Others treated my ugliness as a humiliation forced upon him.
But I could not bring myself to think of me as something filthy.
Later, after the Fifth Prince clawed his way back up and regained his place among the princes, he gradually won the emperor’s favor.
Everyone came to congratulate him.
Even my parents brought my younger sister with them, hoping to stuff her into the Fifth Prince’s household.
“Aqiao, you can’t possibly serve His Highness in this state.”
“If someone else is going to have her, we might as well make it one of our own.”
“His Highness likes your sister. Don’t believe me? See for yourself.”
The Fifth Prince really did like my sister.
He allowed her to stay beside him, grinding ink, cleaning the inkstone, and keeping him company with her red sleeves and sweet fragrance.
Whenever he brought back gifts from outside, she got a share.
Even the palace rewards were put before her for selection.
Everyone said my sister was bound to become the Fifth Prince’s side consort one day.
She believed it too.
But the Fifth Prince still had not taken her into his inner household.
And I no longer wanted to wait, so I asked for a divorce.
For a moment, the Fifth Prince looked blank.
Then he said lightly, “Are you serious?”
