Anding Gate.
The towering ramparts hung high in the air, gazing down upon the mortal world like an impassable chasm.
This was the Grand Sheng Kingdom’s sturdiest line of defense. Since the founding of the nation, countless crises of life and death had been resolved right beneath Anding Gate. These soaring city walls were an impenetrable fortress for Grand Sheng, as well as the Crown Prince Xiao Qi’s final hope.
Xie Ning’s hands were bound behind her back. The coarse rope had long since cut into her flesh. Beneath the heavy, opulent garments of the Crown Princess, her body was already at its absolute limit. Yet her lips were still painted a vibrant crimson, her brow and eyes meticulously adorned, and even her sallow complexion was covered with fine rouge. From afar, she still appeared to be that dignified and amiable Crown Princess.
Beside her ear came Xiao Qi’s hysterical voice. “Xie Ning, look! This is the realm that will belong to us in the future!” He abruptly yanked the coarse rope around her wrists. Though his palm was stained with beads of her blood, he didn’t care in the slightest as he pressed her into his chest, forcing her to gaze down at the base of the wall. “Xie Ning, I can forgive the absurd affair between you and Imperial Sister. As long as you obediently persuade your father to abandon the dark and return to the light, I will make you Empress the moment I ascend the throne, and confer upon your father the title of First-Class Duke of State Protection. Isn’t this perfection for both sides?”
“Think about it! Your father fought on horseback his entire life for that old dog Xiao Shen, yet to this day, he’s merely a Vice-Second Rank General of Zhenyuan, constantly guarding a godforsaken place like Bianyang Pass. Is it worth it?”
Standing atop the high wall and looking down, Xie Ning could only see vast, dense swarms of black shadows. People looked like ants; one could not tell who was who.
She knew her father, Xie Yuanshan, was right beneath the wall, leading eighteen thousand border troops and biding his time. She also knew that right now, the frantically fleeing Crown Prince regarded her as his life-saving straw, believing he could use her small life to threaten Xie Yuanshan.
But the Crown Prince forgot that she, just like him, was nothing more than an insignificant pawn in this imperial city.
She gave no response, acting as if she hadn’t heard his words.
Xiao Qi spat, no longer caring about decorum, and clamped his hand directly around her neck. “Xie Ning, don’t think for a second that I won’t kill you.”
Xie Ning remained entirely composed. Looking at her completely unbothered gaze, Xiao Qi said with deep hatred, “You look down on me that much? Xie Ning, do you really think Xiao Rong is any better than me? Let me tell you, that good Imperial Sister of mine is the exact same species as I am. She might like you, but in the face of power, that tiny bit of affection she has for you is utterly negligible.”
Hearing these words, a cold, impatient line from Xiao Rong flashed through Xie Ning’s mind—
“Where would one find genuine affection in the imperial family? Feelings are all just an act. Plainly put, it’s nothing more than an exchange of benefits.”
Suddenly struck in her soft spot, a flicker of pain crossed Xie Ning’s eyes. Xiao Qi caught this expression and laughed boastfully, seemingly indulging in the pleasure of breaking her spine with his own hands. He whispered sinisterly in her ear, “The person you constantly long for has arrived as well.”
A bit further away, Xiao Rong was personally leading her guards, arriving dusty and weary from the journey.
Though the distance was vast, Xie Ning couldn’t help but look, wishing to find that sole individual amidst the sea of ants.
“Xie Ning, let’s make a bet.” Xiao Qi’s voice sounded as if it came from the depths of hell. “I’ll give you one chance. Once Xiao Rong comes over, as long as she is willing to disarm and surrender, I will let you leave the city. Tell me, will that good Imperial Sister of mine abandon the monstrous power within her reach for your sake?”
“Or will she choose to step over your corpse and walk toward the supreme pinnacle of power?”
“I am truly, eagerly looking forward to it.”
He had gone completely mad.
Xie Ning suddenly raised her head and stared into Xiao Qi’s eyes. “Xiao Qi, when you play chess, have you ever been struck in the eye by a chess piece?”
Her question came out of nowhere. Xiao Qi almost couldn’t follow her train of thought, freezing in dazed silence for a brief moment.
It was during this single moment that Xie Ning leaped straight off the city wall…
“Xie Ning—!”
In the Princess’s Manor, the Eldest Princess Xiao Rong abruptly awakened from a nightmare, her face deathly pale, her entire body stiff.
Her head attendant, Su Hexiang, hurriedly retrieved a silk handkerchief and knelt before Xiao Rong. “Your Highness!” She was anxious beyond measure. “Did you have a nightmare again?”
Xiao Rong’s palms were slick with cold sweat, her back drenched through. She opened her eyes, her mind still dazed. “It’s nothing.” Only after her maidservants washed and dressed her did Xiao Rong come back to her senses. “What time is it?”
“It is a quarter past the Hour of the Sheep (1:15 PM). The noble ladies of the capital have begun setting off one after another. However, as we are close to the palace, the New Year’s Eve palace banquet does not start until three quarters past the Hour of the Monkey (4:30 PM). Even if you depart at the beginning of the Hour of the Monkey (3:00 PM), you will still arrive in time.”
Xiao Rong rubbed her brow. “Who has arrived so far?”
“Similar to previous years: the Ministers of the Six Ministries, the Chancellor of the Hanlin Academy, the Commanders-in-Chief of various regions, and other high-ranking officials along with their families,” Su Hexiang paused. “There is also the family of General Xie Yuanshan of Zhenyuan, who guards Bianyang Pass. General Xie and his wife have only one daughter, named—Xie Ning.”
Xiao Rong’s hand came to a sudden halt. She still remembered that massive emotion in her dream, powerful enough to drown her. For a moment, she was struck speechless.
“I shouldn’t have met her before,” Xiao Rong murmured to herself. “How could—”
How could she dream of the scene where Xie Ning plummeted to her death from Anding Gate? Furthermore, regarding someone she had never even laid eyes upon, what did her death have to do with her? Why was there such a heartbreaking, immense sense of despair in the dream?
Su Hexiang pondered, “Perhaps Your Highness has been hearing about her too often lately. Rumors from the palace say that although Xie Yuanshan was born with Herculean strength, the daughter he fathered has been frail since childhood. Xie Yuanshan earned the Emperor’s favor through his loyalty and never aligns himself with factions. The Emperor feels pity and intends to support the Xie family, so he wishes to betroth Xie Ning to the Crown Prince and bring her into the palace to be nurtured. At this moment, General Xie should already be in an audience with His Majesty.”
Xiao Rong listened quietly, then suddenly said, “Prepare everything. We are going to the palace as well.”
Su Hexiang froze. “Your Highness, didn’t you always wait until a quarter past the Hour of the Monkey (3:15 PM) in previous years? Besides, for this New Year’s Eve palace banquet, the hostess of the female banquet remains Noble Consort Yan—”
The Eldest Princess Xiao Rong’s birth mother came from a humble background, and she had always been looked down upon by the Yan Clan, who venerated prestigious noble families. Consequently, Xiao Rong and Noble Consort Yan couldn’t stand each other either.
Yet Xiao Rong interrupted her. “Go!”
It felt as though an indescribable impulse was driving her, making her desperate to rush to the palace banquet. She wanted to see what kind of sacred figure this Xie Ning truly was, and what she looked like.
The Xie Ning in her dream was simply too far away; she could only see the silhouette of a woman in luxurious attire and a phoenix crown falling from mid-air.
Xiao Rong hadn’t even managed to see whether the Xie Ning in the dream actually struck the ground. The instant she saw that figure falling, her soul seemed to detach from her body. She had charged forward recklessly with only one thought in her mind: save Xie Ning!
However, dreams lacked all logic. Given the distance, it was impossible for her to catch Xie Ning, let alone hold her in her arms. Yet, as if her soul had left her body, she had crossed a distance of several kilometers in an instant, steadily catching Xie Ning into her arms…
Xiao Rong composed herself.
She thought to herself that things in dreams could not be taken as reality.
Side Hall of the Hall of Grand Celebration.
Xie Ning and her mother, Li Wan, waited quietly for Xie Yuanshan to return from his imperial audience.
Two months ago, their family had set out from Bianyang Pass, alternating between land and water routes, traveling for a full sixty-plus days before finally arriving in the capital.
The General’s Manor in the capital was taken care of by people dispatched by the Emperor, maintained cleanly and neatly, waiting at any time for Xie Yuanshan’s family to move in. After Xie Yuanshan briefly settled his wife and daughter in the manor, he rushed to the palace the very next day to seek an audience with His Majesty.
Right now, Xie Yuanshan was being received by the Emperor. No one knew what they were discussing, but it had already been half an hour.
Xie Ning and her mother waited in the side hall. Unable to resist their exhaustion, they were quite sleepy, yet neither dared to actually fall asleep.
Madame Xie couldn’t help but complain a little, “Your father is so long-winded. He always takes three sentences to say what could be said in one. Who knows how much of the Emperor’s time he’s wasting.” Even in her complaining, she only dared to blame her husband for delaying the Emperor.
Xie Ning kept her head lowered, appearing drowsy to prevent others from seeing her expression. Upon hearing her mother’s complaint, her lowered brows and eyes suddenly lifted as she looked toward Madame Xie. “Mother, tell me, what could Father and His Majesty be discussing for so long?”
She actually knew. Ever since two months ago, at the first leg of the journey where they switched from land to water, she had been reborn.
She had leaped down from Anding Gate, yet instead of seeing her own shattered body, she opened her eyes to find herself back at the beginning of the story—the New Year’s Eve palace banquet in the seventh year of Shengyuan.
She clearly remembered that it was after this very audience that Xie Yuanshan returned to tell her a piece of grand “good news.” In reality, however, her parents had already known about this good news long before they traveled to the capital; they had simply kept it from her.
When she first realized she had been reborn, Xie Ning didn’t actually have the energy to think.
She was someone who couldn’t swim. Bianyang Pass was arid and lacked water all year round; the only leafy vegetable one could see throughout the year was mustard greens. Any plant that required a bit more water couldn’t survive in Bianyang Pass at all.
The year Xie Ning traveled to the capital, she had just turned two years past her coming-of-age ceremony. It was her first time taking a boat, and she rode it for half a month. On the first day it was novel, but by the second day, she became dizzy and vomited continuously. Thus, when she woke up on the waterway, Xie Ning felt as if she were about to vomit to death.
After throwing up intermittently for over ten days, they finally switched back to the land route, giving Xie Ning the lingering sensation of having survived a near-death experience. To tell the truth, the moment her feet touched the solid earth, Xie Ning even felt that jumping off the city wall to her death in her past life was far better than being slowly murdered by seasickness on a boat.
The long water journey washed her heart full of resentment clean, making her even more certain of the path she wanted to take.
For instance, she no longer harbored any illusions regarding her parents.
In her past life, she had always strived to act obedient and charming, trying every possible way to win her parents’ affection. Even though she didn’t want to become the Crown Princess at all, she had consistently gone against her own wishes simply because she didn’t want to disappoint them. However, she was not someone who accepted fate meekly either; privately, she had racked her brains for solutions. Regrettably, none of her efforts worked in the end, and the decree of marriage was still bestowed.
When she was reduced to Xiao Qi’s hostage, Xie Ning felt a sense of relief alongside her heartbroken coldness. She finally realized that love could not be begged for. She was merely a tool in her parents’ hands to display their loyalty to the Emperor; their true love was reserved entirely for the son they had hidden away. Rather than humbly trying to scrape together that tiny bit of negligible affection from her parents, it was better to love herself properly. Not to mention hatred—hatred would only torment oneself, and they simply weren’t worth it.
For another instance, she no longer wanted to have any entanglement with Xiao Rong.
People of the imperial family had been scheming and fighting for power since childhood; these traits were engraved into their very bones. Such people had long lost the capacity to love others. After all, affection was merely a tool to them they only needed to put on a show of having feelings to trade for a wave of concrete benefits. For them, why not?
When Xiao Qi used her life as a bargaining chip to bet on Xiao Rong’s choice, Xie Ning was truly terrified. Under those circumstances, whether Xiao Rong chose her or not, Xie Ning couldn’t accept either outcome. Choosing her meant that because of her, Xiao Rong’s lifelong efforts would be cast away; not choosing her would prove even further that she was forever the part that Xiao Rong could discard. How cruel! Xie Ning had realized back then: why hand her fate over to someone else to decide?
She would choose for herself.
As for Xiao Rong Xie Ning believed that Xiao Rong did hold some affection for her, but from the very beginning, that affection was riddled with calculation and self-interest. In the end, it inevitably became unrecognizable, making it impossible to distinguish genuine truth from falsehood. Now that she had a second chance, rather than remaining trapped in the whirlpool of feelings and unable to break free, it was better to cut the gordian knot cleanly and live joyfully for once!
To live joyfully, the most important thing was freedom. If possible, she naturally wished she could soar away into the sky immediately and stay far from these right and wrong affairs. However, having already found herself trapped in the capital, trying to easily escape her father’s control and the Emperor’s marriage arrangement was clearly not that simple.
The ultimate root of everything she suffered was the Emperor, and the second root was her father, Xie Yuanshan. With her frail strength, attempting to oppose Xie Yuanshan—who had fought on the battlefield for years was no different from striking a rock with an egg. Nevertheless, Xie Ning had already made up her mind.
She still remembered that the suburban area near Anding Gate had once suffered from a wild boar plague for quite a long time. The Capital Patrol had gone to eradicate them several times but failed to eliminate the threat, especially since wild boars traveling in herds possessed a lethal force no weaker than a small military squad of thirty to fifty men. It was only when rebellion broke out in the capital and a massive army pressed upon the border that the wild boar herds were thoroughly frightened away.
She was naturally no match for Xie Yuanshan, but Xie Yuanshan might not necessarily be a match for a herd of wild boars. Furthermore, having just arrived in the capital right now, Xie Yuanshan did not yet know about the wild boar issue near Anding Gate. Xie Ning knew in her heart that this matter had to be settled with speed, relying primarily on catching him unprepared; the longer it dragged on, the worse it would become. However, the mother in front of her left her indecisive.
She knew her mother was her father’s accomplice, yet her mother had never possessed the ability to resist her father, and was even a victim of the Xie family herself. Having already determined to defy her father, she was unsure how she should treat her mother.
Xie Ning raised her head, her face devoid of any expression as she looked at her mother. “Mother, has Father ever mentioned anything to you?”
She wanted to know whether her birth mother had ever, for even a single moment, thought on her behalf.