“Bow to Heaven and Earth!” A sharp, piercing voice rang out high in the air.
Most of Ji Kongqing’s face was covered beneath a red bridal veil. She cooperated by holding the red silk ribbon in her hand, lifelessly bowing on command to complete the wedding ceremony.
At the other end of the red silk ribbon stood a woman with a striking and vivid appearance.
Her attire was completely different from Ji Kongqing’s. She wore a red Qian Yuan wedding robe, her high-penned hair secured by a jade hairpin, with her beautiful face completely unobstructed.
There was not a single expression on that striking face at the moment; it was completely devoid of any joy of impending marriage.
That is right, Ji Kongqing was about to marry such a woman.
Half a month ago, she had collapsed on the operating table after working continuously for three days straight.
After hearing the flatline beep of her electrocardiograph, and opening her eyes once more, Ji Kongqing found herself inhabiting this person with the same name, arriving in this peculiar ancient world.
This world was divided into six genders. The primary genders were still male and female, but the primary classification was determined by the secondary gender.
There were three secondary genders: Qian Yuan, Zhongyong, and Kunze.
Qian Yuan and Kunze were dominated by something called pheromones, which endowed Qian Yuan with naturally stronger physiques and sharper intellects, while giving Kunze delicate bodies and extremely high fertility rates.
The union of a Qian Yuan and a Kunze could produce superior children. The higher the ranks of both parties, the more their offspring would surpass ordinary people in every aspect.
Zhongyong, who lacked pheromones, held a lower status and had lower fertility rates; most of the children they produced were also Zhongyong, with very few being Qian Yuan or Kunze.
Zhongyong made up the largest population in this world, but social order was mostly controlled by Qian Yuan, and only a minority of Kunze held high positions because most Kunze were confined to the inner courtyards to bear and raise children.
It was also difficult for Zhongyong to seize power; they generally worked as ordinary commoners engaged in mundane yet heavy labor.
Upon arriving in this world, Ji Kongqing became a Qian Yuan, while the person beside her about to become her wife was a Kunze of extremely high status, the most noble and favored Eldest Princess of the Jiaming Kingdom, Jiang Sui.
Her biological mother was the Empress of the Jiaming Kingdom. As the Emperor and Empress’s first child, she had been deeply favored since childhood and could be said to have been groomed as the crown heir.
Having practiced martial arts since childhood and possessing formidable combat skills, she went to the borderlands at the age of fourteen to quell foreign rebellions. With illustrious military achievements, she was the Jiaming Kingdom’s first female Kunze general and the idol of all Kunze.
Her life story sounded quite poignant as well.
Before her secondary gender manifestation, she was the prospective Crown Princess heavily anticipated by the Emperor of the Jiaming Kingdom, and everyone in the royal family firmly believed she would eventually manifest as an exceptionally outstanding Qian Yuan.
Yet who would have thought that her manifestation period, originally expected at age sixteen, kept getting delayed until she successfully manifested at eighteen, and upon manifestation, she turned out to be a Grade-A-Tier-Three Kunze.
This news stirred a thousand waves of shock at court, and Jiang Sui’s younger brothers and sisters began to stir restlessly at this time.
The Emperor also issued an imperial edict attempting to summon Jiang Sui back to the capital, but Jiang Sui refused. It wasn’t until she successfully quelled the foreign rebellions at age twenty-five that she finally returned to the capital.
Upon returning to the capital, she voluntarily surrendered her military tally, and the Emperor built an oversized Princess Manor for her in the capital, bestowing upon her the title Fenghua.
He rewarded her with Jiangzhou, the most prosperous region in the Jiaming Kingdom, as her fiefdom.
After the Princess Manor was completed, the Emperor also bestowed ten thousand taels of gold, one thousand taels of silver, two hundred servants, and one thousand garrison soldiers.
Rare treasures and exotic jewels were moved into the mansion box by box, showing that even after manifesting as a Kunze, the favor she received remained undiminished.
In contrast, Ji Kongqing’s status was far more miserable than hers. This body of hers was twenty years old this year, and her identity was that of a hostage sent by the defeated enemy state, the Qianniao Kingdom.
Ranked fifth in the Qianniao Kingdom, she was considered good for nothing, holding extremely low presence within the Qianniao royal family.
The Qianniao Kingdom was a small country located in the northern part of the Jiaming Kingdom. They excelled at horseback riding and archery, loved warfare, and possessed a fierce folk culture. Belonging to a nomadic ethnicity, the people grew up eating beef and mutton and drinking cow and sheep milk, making them all quite robust and tall.
Because arable land resources within the Qianniao Kingdom were scarce, in order to strive for more resources, the Qianniao Kingdom constantly encroached upon the borders of the Jiaming Kingdom in search of new territories.
Jiang Sui had fought wars against the Qianniao Kingdom for so many years before finally beating them into submission.
The subdued Qianniao Kingdom, to show its sincerity, sent Ji Kongqing, a useless, low-presence imperial princess, to serve as a hostage.
A hostage, as the name implied, was a human pawn.
As long as the Qianniao Kingdom provoked a war once more, the hostage would be the first to be killed.
The original Ji Kongqing had been an anomaly in the Qianniao Kingdom. Unlike other members who were strong, she was slender, lacked martial arts skills, and had no particular talent.
Her personality was always gloomy, and she was frequently bullied and cursed at as a useless weakling.
Precisely because of this, the Emperor of the Qianniao Kingdom deemed her devoid of value and sent her over to act as a hostage.
Because her country was disliked, her treatment after arriving in the Jiaming Kingdom was far from good.
Within days of her arrival, the Emperor pushed her onto Jiang Sui as a husband, using a method deemed extremely humiliating to a Qian Yuan by others, marrying into the Princess Manor as a matrilocal husband.
This could probably also be considered a show of force by the Jiaming Kingdom toward the Qianniao Kingdom, simply because they felt that sending a valueless discarded chess piece like Ji Kongqing showed not the slightest sincerity, clearly harboring intentions of making a comeback.
The Qianniao Kingdom also seemed to feel the shame, so they had the accompanying servants administer poison to the original owner to kill her.
The objective was crystal clear, frame the murder and ignite a war once more.
It was just unfortunate that the original owner died, and Ji Kongqing transmigrated across.
Realizing that the original owner had been murdered by her own biological father, Ji Kongqing genuinely felt that the Emperor of the Qianniao Kingdom was vicious enough. She was his own flesh and blood after all, yet he discarded her without a second thought.
They always said that royalty throughout history was fickle, and this saying proved true indeed.
Looking at Jiang Sui beside her, who was also a member of the royal family, Ji Kongqing figured she had just escaped the dragon’s pool only to enter the tiger’s den, and she silently shed a tear of bitterness.
“Send them to the bridal chamber!”
The sharp voice rang out once more. Ji Kongqing’s arm was grabbed, and after walking a long path, she was pushed into a room.
A maid’s voice sounded in her ear: “Your Grace, you may wait here.”
Before Ji Kongqing could reply, she heard the sound of the door closing.
Ji Kongqing ripped the red bridal veil straight off her head and sized up the situation inside the room.
This probably wasn’t Jiang Sui’s courtyard. Ji Kongqing reached that conclusion the moment she saw the furnishings.
The interior furnishings were standard and proper, featuring an antique wooden bed, a table with chairs and tea sets in the center of the room, a wardrobe and chests on the right, and a vanity table on the left.
The amenities could be considered complete, but there were no traces of human habitation, and the decorations were ordinary small ornaments that were not expensive.
Ji Kongqing walked over to the vanity table and looked at the bronze mirror before her, finally having the time to clearly examine her own face. Well, fortunately, it looked quite similar to her original appearance.
The only difference was that her brows and eyes carried more heroic vigor than her modern self, her bone structure was more three-dimensional, and her height was taller as well.
By her estimation, this body’s height was approaching 180 centimeters. Compared to her modern height of 165 centimeters, she felt quite satisfied.
However, Ji Kongqing’s expression was somewhat complicated. In the memories of the original owner she had received, an old nanny seemed to have stuffed some kind of book into her possession before her wedding.
The contents inside appeared to teach one how to serve a Kunze in bed.
No way?
Was she really going to sleep with a strange woman tonight? Ji Kongqing felt immense resistance in her heart.
Even though she was thirty-five years old in modern times, she had never dated a woman before.
She had explored her sexual orientation, but her few romantic experiences had all been with men.
During those relationships, things barely extended beyond holding hands and hugging a little. Who had the time when she was busy as hell?
Although she couldn’t say she liked those men all that much, deep down she always considered herself a straight woman. To let her have a physical relationship with a woman she had just met once was a psychological hurdle she truly couldn’t cross.
Ji Kongqing sighed, covered her face with the bridal veil, rubbed it roughly a few times, and then resignedly sat back down on the bed.
She sat there for a long time.
It wasn’t until Ji Kongqing was about to fall asleep that there was movement outside the door.
Hearing a cry of “Your Highness,” the door was pushed open, and her veil was lifted away with a steelyard rod.
Ji Kongqing opened her eyes in a daze, gazed at the striking great beauty before her, and instantly froze, screaming internally: This is her wife? She is gorgeous!
The newcomer possessed an extremely gorgeous appearance with thick black hair and beautiful brows. Her eye shape was a noble phoenix eye, and her pupils were an intense, dark black that seemed to suck people in when they met her gaze.
From Ji Kongqing’s angle, she could see that her eyelashes were long and dark, and the bridge of her nose was high and straight.
Her thin lips were a healthy light pink, shaped into a standard M-form with an obvious Cupid’s bow.
Her skin was a healthy cold porcelain white, so smooth that pores were barely visible. Below her gentle yet magnificent face, her jawline was clear and smooth, a true combination of both bone structure and skin beauty.
Aside from her face, her figure was also exceptional.
Standing right there plainly before Ji Kongqing, one could still discern her slender waist wrapped beneath her robe, and her neck was a swan-like neck, noble and elegant.
There was not a single expression on that pretty face at the moment.
She lowered her gaze slightly, looking down at Ji Kongqing from a position of superiority, a trace of lingering anger seemingly resting within her eyes.
“Audacious!”
Jiang Sui’s vermilion lips moved slightly, her cold gaze fixed upon Ji Kongqing, who was unapologetically sizing her up.
Her voice was a pleasant imperial elder sister tone, leaning toward a mezzo-soprano. It was somewhat deep and carried great majesty when she was angry.
Ji Kongqing sighed at the unfairness of the Creator, slowly came back to her senses, silently pulled back her gaze, and blinked rapidly: “Apologies.”
Jiang Sui’s expression shifted slightly, and the maid Cuizhu beside her immediately spoke up: “Your Grace, this maid is Her Highness’s personal maid, Cuizhu. Starting today, Mingyue Pavilion will be the place where you reside.”
“Tomorrow, Her Highness will arrange for two maids to come over and take care of your daily needs and diet. Your accompanying servants will be sent back to the Qianniao Kingdom.”
“In the future, should Her Highness require you, a lantern will be lit in the main courtyard. At that time, you can freshen up here, and someone will come to fetch you.”
Ji Kongqing understood what she meant, meaning that she was merely a tool who had to be at someone’s beck and call.
“Then am I allowed to leave the manor?” Ji Kongqing asked Cuizhu.
Cuizhu nodded: “Yes, you are. If Your Grace wishes to leave the manor, you can speak with the Head Steward to obtain an entry-and-exit token, but you cannot leave the capital. You can only move about within the capital city and must return to the manor before the Hai hour every day.”
Ji Kongqing nodded: “Then do I have a monthly salary? Um, you know, that thing, the monthly stipend, how much is it?”
Cuizhu hadn’t expected Ji Kongqing to care about this. Taken aback for a moment, she replied: “Your Grace’s monthly stipend is in accordance with Jiaming’s regulations, amounting to about fifty taels of silver per month. You may collect it from the accounts department every month.”
“Then what is my scope of movement within the manor?” Ji Kongqing wanted to know how much freedom she possessed.
Jiang Sui hadn’t expected Ji Kongqing to have so many questions, a trace of impatience flashing across her expression: “Except for my courtyard, everywhere else is fine.”
Cuizhu nodded and offered a reminder: “Her Highness’s courtyard is named Fenghua Courtyard. Unless summoned by Her Highness, you are not permitted to enter or exit at will.”
“Oh, alright, I have no further questions. Please make yourselves at home.”
Ji Kongqing had no questions for the moment, and Jiang Sui didn’t want to linger here any longer, so she departed with Cuizhu.
Since Cuizhu had said that the maids Jiang Sui arranged for her would only arrive tomorrow, Ji Kongqing was still using the servants brought along from the Qianniao Kingdom.
The Qianniao maids held an extremely impatient attitude toward her, completely lacking the self-awareness of servants. They casually set the fetched hot water beside the wooden tub and walked away in disgust.
The look they cast at Ji Kongqing clearly spelled out: Why are you so hard to kill?
Ji Kongqing furrowed her brows, feeling deeply displeased with such an attitude. Even a bottom-tier maid dared to bully her.
From the attitude of those around her, it wasn’t hard to imagine how much grievance the original owner had suffered from childhood to adulthood. No wonder she always looked so gloomy.
Clumsily stripping off these ancient garments, Ji Kongqing poured the water into the wooden tub and sat down. The warm water soothed her exhausted body, making her feel quite a bit more comfortable.
While Ji Kongqing was still washing up, Jiang Sui was already soaking in the manor’s bath pool. The pool was strewn with flower petals, and Cuizhu was tending to her nearby, a picture of comfort.
Amidst such a steam-wreathed atmosphere, Jiang Sui’s mind wandered somewhat, and she couldn’t help recalling what her Imperial Father had said to her seven days ago when she went to his imperial study.