“…Your Highness, your prayer beads are digging into me.”
Her voice was seductive and breathy, sounding exceptionally alluring within the dim Buddhist hall.
The Crown Prince, Xiao Chenyuan, had his slender, well-defined fingers wrapped around a string of sandalwood prayer beads—beneath his palm was a woman’s half-undone garment, revealing skin that was voluptuous and snow-white.
Su Yaoyao looked up at him, her eyes as alluring as silk. Amidst the shifting light in her gaze, there wasn’t a trace of the cowardice or shyness she displayed during the day.
With a sharp snap, the string of prayer beads broke.
Xiao Chenyuan’s breathing grew ragged.
He lowered his eyelashes, the candlelight casting a shadow over his handsome profile. His thin lips parted slightly:
“Since you knew they were digging into you, why didn’t you move away?”
His tone was flat, as calm and rippleless as when he lectured on scriptures in the hall, yet his hand continued to stroke the snowy white skin at her collar.
Su Yaoyao let out a soft laugh. Instead of moving away, she pressed herself further into his palm.
“Why should I move? Hasn’t Your Highness already… broken your vows?”
Before her voice could fade, she was suddenly pulled by the waist. In a whirl of motion, she was pinned beneath Xiao Chenyuan.
He gazed down at her from above. Those eyes, which usually held only Buddhist scriptures and the common people, now reflected her face, flushed with the heat of passion.
“Su Yaoyao,” he called her full name, his voice deep and low.
“You are my second brother’s fiancée…”
“Him?”
“Is he even worthy?” Su Yaoyao burst into laughter as if she had heard a hilarious joke.
Then, she reached out with her supple, boneless hands to hook around Xiao Chenyuan’s neck, pulling him close.
“But… even if I am… so what?”
Su Yaoyao leaned close to his earlobe and gave it a light bite, her breath like orchids.
“Does Your Highness not like this body of mine?”
Xiao Chenyuan’s gaze darkened.
How could he not like it?
On the day they first met at the palace banquet, this future sister-in-law of his still looked like a frail willow swaying in the wind. Wrapped in layers upon layers of skirts, her face was sallow, and she followed submissively behind his second brother, looking exactly like a flower that had lost its water.
But in just over a month, she seemed to have undergone a complete transformation.
Her waist was still slender, but it was no longer the sickly thinness caused by tight lacing. Her chest was full and shapely, no longer bound by layers of cloth strips.
Her complexion was rosy, her eyes shimmered with light, and even her lip color was so vibrant that one couldn’t look away.
His memories came to an abrupt halt because the woman beneath him moved restlessly.
Xiao Chenyuan’s breath hitched. He reached out to pin down her wandering wrists.
“Don’t move. If you keep moving, I cannot guarantee… what will happen next…”
Su Yaoyao’s expression was full of seductive charm. “Your Highness has practiced Buddhism for many years…”
“Do you know the meaning of ‘If I do not enter hell, who will?'”
Xiao Chenyuan stared at her for a long time, then suddenly leaned down to whisper in her ear:
“If this is hell, I have already descended into it for you.”
The moment his words fell, an urgent kiss descended, and a large hand reached into her robes.
The prayer beads fell to the floor with a clatter, scattering everywhere.
If the Su Yaoyao from three months ago had seen this scene, she probably would have been scared to death all over again.
After all, at that time, everyone in the capital knew that Su Yaoyao, the legitimate daughter of the Marquis of Yongning, was a fiancée disliked by the Second Prince. She was a laughingstock who starved herself until she was sallow and thin, all while wearing chest binders because she was “too plump.”
“Sister, isn’t your dress a bit… tight today?” Her concubine-born younger sister, Su Yun’er, pinched her handkerchief and laughed softly behind her hand, though her eyes were filled with mockery.
“I’m feeling breathless just looking at you.”
Su Yaoyao—or rather, the original Su Yaoyao—lowered her head, her fingers tightly twisting the corner of her clothes.
Today was her coming-of-age ceremony.
She had specifically worn a pale lotus-colored gown, but what should have been a full chest was forcibly suppressed into a distorted shape, making her look neither here nor there.
“I… I’ll change into something else next time…” Her voice grew smaller and smaller.
“Next time?” The Second Prince, Xiao Qiming, sneered from the side. “Su Yaoyao, does it matter what you wear? Your face is sallow, you have no grace, and as for this chest… Hmph, shameless!”
Su Yaoyao’s face turned deathly pale.
She actually wasn’t fat at all; it was just this chest…
The concubine mother said her appearance was disgraceful and made her eat only one meal a day, bind her chest tightly, and walk with a hunched posture.
She had obediently complied, starving until she was dizzy and binding her chest until it was bruised, yet this figure of hers… it was as if it was born to spite her.
“Second Prince,” she gathered her courage to look up at her nominal fiancé, “We… we have an engagement…”
“Engagement?” Xiao Qiming acted as if he had heard a massive joke. He pulled Su Yun’er toward him by the shoulder.
“If it weren’t for the sake of the Empress and your grandfather, this Prince would find even looking at you disgusting!”
Su Yun’er’s eyes reddened at the perfect moment as she timidly tugged his sleeve. “Your Highness, don’t say that… Sister must be feeling so hurt in her heart…”
“She’s hurt? Is she even worthy of feeling hurt?” Xiao Qiming spat. “Only our Yun’er is good. Frail as a willow—that is the true beauty in my heart.”
Su Yun’er leaned into Xiao Qiming’s embrace, her voice so soft it could drip water. “Sister, don’t blame His Highness. If you must blame someone, blame your body… for being a bit too… voluptuous. These days, which noble gentleman likes this kind of figure?”
The hall full of guests covered their mouths and chuckled.
She opened her mouth, wanting to defend herself.
But the long-term suppression made even breathing difficult, let alone arguing.
She only felt her vision go black.
Before losing consciousness, the last thing she heard was Xiao Qiming’s impatient voice:
“Faking a faint again? Su Yaoyao, what else can you do besides this trick?”
The original host was already weak. Having been publicly humiliated like this, she couldn’t catch her breath and literally died of sheer indignation.
Inside Su Yaoyao’s bedroom.
When she opened her eyes again, the soul inside the shell had been replaced by a Sea Queen from the modern entertainment industry—a top-tier player who had slept with A-list stars, flirted with CEOs, and could walk through a thousand blossoms without a single leaf clinging to her.
Su Yaoyao was receiving the stifling and cowardly memories that didn’t belong to her.
Her chest felt incredibly tight and suffocating.
She instinctively reached out and gave a tug.
Rrrrrip—
The absurdly thick binding cloth wrapped around her chest tore apart.
Instantly.
The whole world felt fresh again.
She felt like she had come back to life.
She propped herself up, sat up, and glanced down.
Then, her eyes lit up.
“What a waste of God’s gifts!!”
This… what kind of divine figure was this!
The waist was impossibly thin, and the chest…
Magnificent peaks!
As for this face, although it looked a bit sallow due to long-term malnutrition, the foundation was top-notch.
Big eyes, a high nose, and small, pert lips.
If she took good care of herself, she would definitely be an absolute bombshell!
“With this body and these looks, in the modern world, people would spend a fortune on plastic surgery and still not get this. You actually ruined it like this?”
Su Yaoyao was heartbroken.
“Original host, oh original host, you were truly a beggar sitting on a gold mine. You had such a winning hand, yet you played it like garbage?”
“PUA’d to death by a green tea sister and a blind scumbag?”
“Are you even worthy of this top-tier hardware!”
After her rant, she felt it wasn’t quite right.
One should respect the dead.
She was occupying the person’s body now; it wasn’t very kind to keep scolding her.
“Fine then, silly girl.”
Su Yaoyao patted her face and quickly calmed down.
“For the sake of this stunning skin, I, your big sister, will get revenge for you.”
“As for those who looked down on you…”
She looked at her reflection in the mirror and slowly curled her lips into the poised, effortless smile of a Sea Queen.
“I will make every single one of them kneel and watch—to see just how beautiful this body of yours truly is.”
“Miss! Are you awake? An invitation has come from the palace, saying the Crown Prince has returned…”
The urgent voice of the maid Chuntao came from outside the door, accompanied by the sound of hurried footsteps.