“…Your Highness, your prayer beads… they’re pressing into me.”
Her voice was soft and seductive, tinged with breathy warmth. In the dim Buddhist hall, it sounded especially alluring.
Crown Prince Xiao Chenyuan’s slender, well-defined fingers were wrapped around a string of purple sandalwood prayer beads. Beneath his palm was a woman whose clothes were half undone, revealing the lush, snow-white skin of her full figure.
Su Yaoyao looked up at him, her eyes shimmering with charm. Not a trace remained of the timid and shy girl she had appeared to be during the day.
Snap.
The prayer beads broke.
Xiao Chenyuan’s breathing faltered as well.
He lowered his lashes. Candlelight cast shadows across his refined profile. His thin lips parted slightly.
“If you knew they were pressing into you… why didn’t you move away?”
His tone was calm, just as steady as when he lectured on Buddhist scriptures in the hall. Yet his hand was still slowly tracing the pale skin at the opening of her collar.
Su Yaoyao let out a soft laugh. Not only did she not move away, she leaned even closer into his palm.
“Why should I avoid it? Your Highness hasn’t already… broken your vows?”
Before she finished speaking, a strong arm wrapped around her waist. In the blink of an eye, she was spun around and pressed beneath him.
He gazed down at her from above. Those eyes that usually held nothing but Buddhist scriptures and concern for the people were now filled with the sight of her flushed, alluring face.
“Su Yaoyao,” he called her by her full name, his voice deep.
“You are my second brother’s fiancée…”
“Him?”
“He deserves me?” Su Yaoyao burst into laughter as if she had just heard the greatest joke in the world.
Then she lifted her soft, boneless arms, hooked them around Xiao Chenyuan’s neck, and pulled him closer.
“So what if I am?”
She leaned close to his ear, gently biting his earlobe, her breath fragrant and warm.
“Doesn’t Your Highness like this body of mine?”
Xiao Chenyuan’s gaze darkened.
How could he not like it?
The first time he saw her was at a palace banquet. His future sister-in-law looked frail and delicate, wrapped in layers of clothing, her complexion pale and sickly as she followed behind his second brother with her head lowered.
She had looked like a flower that had lost all its water.
But in just a little over a month, she seemed completely transformed.
Her waist was still slender, yet no longer the unhealthy thinness forced by tight bindings. Her chest was full and abundant, no longer restrained by layer upon layer of cloth.
Her complexion was rosy, her eyes bright and lively. Even the color of her lips was vivid and impossible to ignore.
His memories abruptly stopped.
Because the woman beneath him shifted restlessly.
Xiao Chenyuan’s breath hitched. He grabbed her wandering wrist.
“Don’t move. If you keep moving… I can’t guarantee what will happen next.”
Su Yaoyao smiled seductively.
“Your Highness has cultivated Buddhism for many years…”
“Do you know the saying, ‘If I do not descend into hell, who will?’”
Xiao Chenyuan stared at her for a long moment before suddenly leaning down and whispering in her ear.
“If this is hell… I would descend into it for you.”
The moment he finished speaking, his eager kiss fell, and his hand slipped beneath her clothes.
The prayer beads clattered to the ground, scattering across the floor.
If the Su Yaoyao from three months ago had seen this scene, she probably would have been scared to death all over again.
Because back then, everyone in the capital knew that the legitimate daughter of the Yongning Marquis Mansion, Su Yaoyao, was the unwanted fiancée of the Second Prince—a laughingstock mocked for being too voluptuous. She tightly bound her chest and starved herself until her face turned sallow and thin.
“Sister, today’s dress of yours… isn’t it a bit tight?”
Her half-sister Su Yuner covered her mouth with a handkerchief as she laughed softly, though her eyes were full of ridicule.
“I can barely breathe just looking at you.”
Su Yaoyao—or rather, the original Su Yaoyao—lowered her head, her fingers twisting the corner of her dress.
Today was her coming-of-age banquet.
She had deliberately worn a pale lotus-colored ruqun. But her naturally full chest had been forcibly compressed by bindings, making her figure look awkward and unnatural.
“I… I’ll change it next time…” Her voice grew softer and softer.
“Next time?” The Second Prince Xiao Qiming sneered. “Su Yaoyao, what difference does it make what you wear? Your face is sallow, your manners are terrible, and that chest of yours…”
“Hmph. Shameless.”
Su Yaoyao’s face turned pale.
She actually wasn’t fat at all.
It was just that her chest…
Her stepmother had said her figure was embarrassing, so she was forced to eat only one meal a day and tightly bind her chest. Even when walking, she had to hunch forward.
She obediently followed these instructions, starving herself until she felt dizzy. Her chest was bruised from the bindings.
Yet this figure…
It seemed determined to defy her efforts.
“Second Prince…” she gathered her courage and looked up at the man who was nominally her fiancé. “We… we have a marriage agreement…”
“A marriage agreement?” Xiao Qiming laughed as if hearing the biggest joke in the world. He pulled Su Yuner into his arms.
“If it weren’t for the Empress and your grandfather, I would feel disgusted even looking at you!”
Su Yuner’s eyes instantly reddened. She tugged gently at his sleeve.
“Your Highness, please don’t say that… Sister will feel terrible…”
“She’ll feel terrible? Does she deserve to?” Xiao Qiming spat.
“Our Yuner is better—fragile like a willow. She’s the true beauty in my heart.”
Leaning against him, Su Yuner spoke softly, her voice dripping with sweetness.
“Sister, don’t blame His Highness. If anyone is to blame, it’s your body… it’s just a little too… voluptuous. What noble young man would like someone like that nowadays?”
All around them, the guests covered their mouths and laughed.
Su Yaoyao opened her mouth to defend herself.
But years of suppression had made it hard for her even to breathe, much less argue.
Her vision darkened.
Before she lost consciousness, the last thing she heard was Xiao Qiming’s impatient voice.
“Pretending to faint again? Su Yaoyao, do you know any other tricks?”
The original Su Yaoyao was already weak. After being humiliated like that in public, she couldn’t catch her breath and died on the spot from anger.
Inside Su Yaoyao’s bedroom.
When her eyes opened again, the body now contained a different soul.
A woman from the modern entertainment industry—the queen of flirtation who had dated top celebrities, charmed powerful CEOs, and moved through countless admirers without ever getting attached.
Su Yaoyao absorbed the humiliating memories that didn’t belong to her.
Her chest felt suffocating.
Subconsciously, she reached up and pulled.
Rip—
The ridiculously thick chest bindings wrapped around her torso tore apart instantly.
In that moment—
The whole world felt fresh.
She felt alive again.
Propping herself up, she looked down at her body.
Her eyes lit up.
“What a waste of a treasure!!!”
This… this was a divine figure!
Her waist was unbelievably slender, and her chest…
Magnificent.
Her face, though a little sallow from long-term malnutrition, had perfect features.
Big eyes, a high nose bridge, and delicate lips.
If she were properly nourished, she would definitely become a beauty capable of toppling cities.
“With this body and this face, people in the modern world would spend fortunes trying to achieve it. And you ruined it like this?”
Su Yaoyao shook her head in disbelief.
“Original owner, you were sitting on a mountain of gold while begging for food. With a winning hand like this, you still played it terribly.”
“You got manipulated to death by a scheming half-sister and a blind scumbag?”
“How could you waste such top-tier hardware!”
After scolding her, she suddenly felt a little guilty.
After all, the dead deserve respect.
Now that she occupied this body, insulting its former owner didn’t seem very kind.
“Fine, silly girl.”
Su Yaoyao patted her own face and quickly calmed down.
“For the sake of this stunning body, I’ll avenge you.”
“As for those who looked down on you…”
She looked at her reflection in the mirror and slowly curved her lips into the confident, effortless smile of a master flirt.
“I’ll make them kneel and watch—”
“Watch just how beautiful this body truly is.”
“Miss! Are you awake? A message from the palace has arrived. It says the Crown Prince has returned…”
Outside the door came the anxious voice of her maid Chuntao, accompanied by hurried footsteps.