Burning Heart Incense - Chapter 1

Chapter 1

On the day I gave birth, Xiao Xuan came to my palace for the first time in ages.

The newborn baby was like a tiny, wrinkled kitten, his cries thin and faint.

I held that little bundle in my arms and faced him in silent defiance.

“The hour has come. The Empress’s palace has sent someone to ask.”

Xiao Xuan’s tone was flat as he reached out to me.

“Give him to Us.”

My breath caught. I tightened my hold on the child in my arms.

Stubbornly, I lifted my head. “I won’t.”

Xiao Xuan’s expression darkened, and his voice turned cold.

“Chuchu, don’t force Us to lay hands on you.”

“But…”

I tried my hardest to make my voice sound calmer.

“Five years ago, when Ah Yan was born, you carried him to the Empress.”

“You said the court was not yet stable, that the Crown Prince needed a powerful maternal clan so no one would dare covet his position-”

At the mention of my eldest son, Xiao Yan, my heart twisted like a knife was being driven through it.

“What about now?”

“After all these years, have you still not secured your throne? Must you take my child to please the Empress?”

The Empress, Shen Yuyao, was the daughter of Grand General Shen. Her brothers all commanded armies.

Back when Xiao Xuan fought for the empire, recruiting soldiers and gathering horses wherever he went, he had relied heavily on the Shen family.

After he proclaimed himself emperor, he married the Shen family’s legitimate daughter with great fanfare and made her Empress. He also ennobled many daughters of military generals.

Only I, the wife who had shared his hardships, was cast aside.

Xiao Xuan’s face chilled at once. “Jiang Chu!”

The eunuchs and palace maids dropped to their knees in an instant.

“Your Ladyship, mind your words!”

I smiled bleakly. “Xiao Xuan, am I wrong?”

He ignored me after that and ordered several palace maids to hold me down.

“No-!”

My arms were suddenly empty.

Xiao Xuan held the child and looked down at me coldly.

“Consort Chu has spoken recklessly and offended the imperial presence.”

“From this day forth, she is confined to Jingyang Palace and may not leave without summons.”

Chapter 2

Ever since giving birth, my mind had remained hazy day after day.

Outside Jingyang Palace, banana trees grew everywhere, and the rain pattered softly against their leaves.

In my daze, I dreamed again of that little courtyard in the countryside.

The courtyard had been planted with so many banana trees.

Back then, Xiao Xuan was not yet emperor. He was only a commoner in plain cloth.

He was the older boy I had grown up with, separated from me by a single wall.

He was my beloved Xiao Lang, whom I had adored since childhood.

That day, Xiao Xuan and I squatted side by side beneath the eaves, watching the rain.

The damp air clung to us, leaving our brows and eyes misted with moisture.

I was uncomfortable staying there and wanted to go back inside, but Xiao Xuan caught hold of me.

“Chuchu.”

He called my name, his voice inexplicably hoarse.

“Xiao Lang?”

I turned back in confusion and saw that, from somewhere, he had produced a peachwood hairpin.

He had carved it himself.

His ten fingers were covered in raw, bloodied scrapes.

For no reason at all, heat rose in my chest.

“A hairpin for my wedded wife.”

Xiao Xuan slid the hairpin into my hair and called softly-

“My wife, Jiang Chu.”

I woke with a start and instinctively reached for the child.

But all I touched was the cold pillow and bedding beside me.

Xiao Lang had betrayed me.

…

In truth, Xiao Xuan had no need to confine me.

Over the years, my health had worsened more and more.

Now, even walking a few extra steps left my whole body drenched in cold sweat.

I had once quietly asked Imperial Physician Chen, who was familiar with me and had come from the same village, about it.

He took my pulse, then examined the old scars crisscrossing my body.

His face went pale in an instant.

“Your Ladyship, when were these injuries sustained? Were they properly treated at the time?”

I shook my head. “Back then, I followed His Majesty on campaign after campaign. There was no time.”

Imperial Physician Chen sighed again and again.

“Old ailments have returned, and your heart is failing.”

“Your Ladyship, I fear… you do not have much time left.”

Strangely enough, when I heard the news, I actually felt a trace of relief.

How wonderful.

At long last, I could be free.

I closed my collar and begged Imperial Physician Chen to keep it a secret for me.

Perhaps because we were from the same village, Imperial Physician Chen felt the injustice on my behalf.

“Your Ladyship and His Majesty were childhood sweethearts, married in your youth. Your bond far surpasses that of all these other consorts and concubines.”

“Why not tell His Majesty?”

I thought for a moment, then asked softly, “He has his three palaces and six courts, beauties beyond count.”

“Do you still believe, even now, that His Majesty and I share some deep and lasting affection?”

So what if we were childhood sweethearts?

So what if we had loved each other deeply in our youth?

“But the two princes in the palace were both born to Your Ladyship-”

Imperial Physician Chen stopped abruptly halfway through his sentence.

He had probably remembered that both princes had been carried off to the Empress’s palace.

Recorded under the Empress’s name.

They had not the slightest connection to me, their birth mother.