Chapter 1

Chapter 1: Just a Title

After autumn came, sudden rains grew frequent. Sheng Zhi Wan stood under the corridor of Ping Lan Residence, and the fine drizzle wove a curtain of beads in front of her.

Senior Palace Maid Huan Zhu kept chattering behind her: “Princess, the Heir Apparent has been standing outside for a whole day and night. His old wound has not healed, and he got soaked by the rain. If he catches a chill and delays tomorrow’s reward ceremony before the throne, what will we do? Besides, the Heir Apparent was set up, which is why he ended up with that farm girl. Even if you accept him for sincerely admitting his fault, what is wrong with taking her in? She’s only a peasant girl. How could she ever be nobler than you? At most, we give her a small courtyard and leave her there in the cold.”

Sheng Zhi Wan, who had been motionless for a long time, suddenly turned around. In her previous life, she had listened to Huan Zhu and let the peasant girl named Meng Yang enter the manor, but what was the result?

That bullied farm girl later became the Meng Clan, with shops spread all over the capital. Then she became the Heir Apparent’s concubine, the young miss who tossed money away for disaster victims. The whole capital praised her, and she was even made an Imperially Bestowed Equal Wife.

In the end, Meng Yang came to Sheng Zhi Wan with a huge belly. Sheng Zhi Wan was sick beyond cure and had even been demoted to a commoner for being jealous.

Meng Yang had said: “Princess, do you know why you never had any offspring and stayed trapped on a sickbed? You should have thought of it long ago, but you refused to. Now that it’s come to this, I’ll make you clearheaded once. It was Shu Xian. He said you harmed one of my children, so in this life you should atone by having none. Every time he went to see you, the sachet he wore was specially made. You kept smelling it. How could you ever get pregnant?”

That vivid red hem flashed before Sheng Zhi Wan’s eyes again. Yes, by then Qi Shu Xian was no longer the fallen Heir Apparent who needed her support to gain a foothold in the Imperial City.

Qi Shu Xian commanded a hundred thousand troops and held power at the First Rank, so even Imperial Father had to demote Sheng Zhi Wan to a commoner when he erupted in anger. In the whole capital, among civil and military officials, who would dare point fingers at something as small as his beloved wearing bright red?

Thinking of it, Sheng Zhi Wan could not stop the mocking curve of her lips. In the end, Sheng Zhi Wan even laughed out loud.

Huan Zhu was baffled by the sudden laughter: “Princess, what are you laughing at? Have you finally thought it through? Besides, this matter was not really the Heir Apparent’s fault.”

Sheng Zhi Wan listened and studied the maidservant she had trusted for more than twenty years in her last life. So Huan Zhu had fallen in love with Qi Shu Xian this early? Otherwise, why would Huan Zhu feel sorry for him after he stood in the rain for only a day and night?

Sheng Zhi Wan said, “Come. Follow this Princess to see the Heir Apparent.”

Huan Zhu answered, “Yes, Princess!” Joy flickered openly in Huan Zhu’s eyes. …

Before Sheng Zhi Wan died, she had not seen Qi Shu Xian for nearly a year. Even when Sheng Zhi Wan dragged a sick body to cook soup with her own hands and deliver it outside his study courtyard, Sheng Zhi Wan could only hear faint laughter and conversation drifting out.

Then the guards always gave her the same icy line, “The Right Chancellor is busy, Madam. Please return.”

But today, the man Sheng Zhi Wan could never manage to see stood soaked through in the rain. Beside Qi Shu Xian, a delicate woman in coarse cloth still looked fragile even like that, her face pale with worry as she tried to persuade Qi Shu Xian to go back.

Sheng Zhi Wan lifted a hand, and the rough maids carrying the palanquin stopped at once.

Huan Zhu spat viciously: “Pah! Shameless little slut! A low thing like her dares to cling to the Heir Apparent? Princess, this servant will go teach her a lesson right now!”

Before Sheng Zhi Wan could answer, Huan Zhu strode straight toward them.

Sheng Zhi Wan let out another soft laugh. Only when Huan Zhu’s slap landed hard and sharp on Meng Yang’s face did the two of them seem to notice Sheng Zhi Wan, and they both looked over.

Qi Shu Xian almost instinctively pulled Meng Yang behind him and said, “Zhi Wan, I wronged you in this, but Meng Yang is innocent. She suffered because of me! You used to say women had it hard in this world. With her status, if I don’t marry her, I will be forcing her to death. Can you bear to watch her die? It’s only a title. I promise you, I will never see her again!”

The handsome man held his back straight.

Meng Yang covered the side of her face that had been struck and stared blankly at Qi Shu Xian’s back. Through the curtain of rain, Meng Yang also saw the woman seated on the ornate palanquin, graceful and imposing.

Everything around Sheng Zhi Wan seemed drenched in luxury, while Meng Yang’s own existence felt like a speck of mud staining that breathtaking grandeur.

Sheng Zhi Wan said, “Just a title? Do you know that this one title is enough to make me the laughingstock of the entire capital?”

Sheng Zhi Wan’s nails dug into her palm. Back then, to obtain an imperially granted marriage edict, Sheng Zhi Wan had knelt outside Zi Sheng Hall for three days and three nights, and she had even threatened death by refusing food.

At that time, Duke Qi Manor had long since fallen into ruin. It did not even have a shell of dignity left, and everyone mocked Sheng Zhi Wan for being a dignified Princess who cared only about love and had lost her mind for a man.

Sheng Zhi Wan did not care. Sheng Zhi Wan only cared about Qi Shu Xian.

And the result… was truly laughable.

Qi Shu Xian frowned in disapproval: “Reputation is nothing. How can it be compared to a human life?”

Sheng Zhi Wan looked past Qi Shu Xian to Meng Yang and gave a light scoff. Sheng Zhi Wan asked, “And you? If I give you a sum of silver and guarantee you a worry-free life for the rest of your days, would you still insist on becoming his concubine?”

Sheng Zhi Wan’s voice was not loud, and her tone was not even sharp, but that single sentence seemed to smash down on the figure in the rain like a thousand-pound hammer. Meng Yang swayed several times before she barely managed to stand steady.

Meng Yang’s face turned deathly white. Biting her lip, Meng Yang dropped to her knees in the rain and stammered, “I… no, this commoner girl… this commoner girl begs the Princess for mercy. This commoner girl has already lost her chastity. If this commoner girl cannot marry him, Father and the family will beat this commoner girl to death.”

Sheng Zhi Wan lowered her eyes and said, “Since that’s the case, Huan Zhu, go invite Imperial Physician Song and have him prepare a medicine that will leave her barren. Bring it here.”