Drunk in Beauty's Lap - Chapter 1

Chapter 1

When I was eighteen, Crown Prince Ji Sui ascended the throne and changed the name of the state to Ye.

In the second year after the New Emperor’s accession, I was given by Imperial Bestowal of Marriage to the Heir of the Marquis of Pingchang.

The moment the edict was issued, the entire court was shaken.

Everyone was startled by the mercilessness of the New Emperor’s balancing of power.

To win over military authority, he had not hesitated to use his own childhood sweetheart as a pawn in a marriage alliance.

After all, given the affection between the New Emperor and me over so many years, everyone had assumed I would one day enter and preside over the Central Palace.

No one in the capital did not know that Princess Changle had lost both father and mother in childhood, her life a pitiful one, and had been raised deep within the palace at Her Majesty the Empress’s knee; that she and the reigning Emperor had grown up together as innocent companions, supporting each other through hardship and adversity.

Everyone believed I would become the most honored woman under heaven.

The noble young ladies and matrons of the capital all sighed in regret: what a Hot Commodity Xiao Xing was-born to an illustrious house, the son of a military clan, a young man of peerless beauty, unmatched in all the world.

He had mounted a horse at eight, a natural-born commander. At fourteen, he followed the Marquis of Pingchang to the distant southwestern border to quell unrest, leading eight thousand elite troops in a night raid on the barbarians’ main camp and capturing their chieftain alive.

Then, in the first year after the New Emperor’s accession, he led twenty thousand elite soldiers of the Xiao Clan Iron Cavalry, was appointed Commissioner of Zhenbei, and went far north to suppress a rebellion, cutting down the rebel Prince of Zhenbei from his horse.

From then on, the achievements of the Xiao Clan Iron Cavalry were so great they threatened to overshadow their sovereign, and there were no higher rewards left to bestow.

Such a man had, just like that, been reduced to a sacrifice of politics.

But the imperial edict had been issued, and the wedding date set. The reigning Emperor then issued another decree permitting me to leave the palace and establish my own residence. The site chosen was in the busiest, most prosperous central commercial district, next door to the Prince’s Residence the New Emperor had occupied before ascending the throne, and only one street away from the Marquis of Pingchang Manor.

In addition, he bestowed upon me three houses in the most costly parts of Chang’an, two mountain estates outside Chang’an and on Mount Zhongnan, and further granted me a true fief of five thousand households, along with two guard units under my household office, numbering over a thousand men.

The rewards broke precedent and were so lavish that all could only sigh: the imperial heart was indeed unfathomable-at once deeply feeling and utterly heartless.

On the sixth day of the sixth month, Xiao Xing, Heir of the Marquis of Pingchang, and I were wed.

I set out from the Princess’s Manor, my dowry carried from north to south, circling the entire capital before being borne into the Marquis of Pingchang Manor.

Xiao Xing came to escort the bride with a troop of his elite Iron Cavalry.

The wedding carriage moved very steadily. Gongs and drums clanged and thundered. The common people cared nothing for political marriage alliances; whenever they saw Xiao Xing, they shouted their congratulations. After all, the Xiao Clan had guarded Great Ye’s peace for decades, and there was no one who did not love and revere them.

Xiao Xing sat high upon his fine horse, cupping his hands in acknowledgment of the congratulations. His face, fair as polished jade, held little expression, and no joy at marriage could be seen there.

When we arrived at the Marquis of Pingchang Manor and the bridal sedan was lowered, what Xiao Xing offered me was not his hand, but the other end of a red silk ribbon.

Not intimate-only respectful.

My movements paused. Then I took the silk ribbon and, led by Xiao Xing, stepped over the brazier and entered the Xiao Clan’s main hall.

The Elder Marquis Xiao had three sons and one daughter. His legitimate eldest son, Xiao Xing’s father, had inherited the title. Xiao Xing had two elder cousins before him, so he ranked third among the Xiao sons; those close to him called him Third Young Master.

Amid the wedding matron’s drawn-out, lilting chants, we bowed to Heaven and Earth.

Only when I had sat down on the wedding bed did Xiao Xing release the red silk ribbon that had been guiding me.

I could sense that there were many people in the bridal chamber. The Xiao Clan’s traditions were upright and proper, and Xiao Xing was the youngest; his elder brothers had long since married, and there were at least five or six children among the younger generation. Yet they were unexpectedly quiet.

Perhaps, rather than seeing me as the third sister-in-law I was about to become, they still regarded me only as Princess Changle.

Those presiding over the wedding had all been sent from the palace, senior attendants who were dignified and meticulous in ritual. When the time came, Xiao Xing picked up the wedding scale and lifted my bridal veil.

The light shifted from dim to bright. The scent of incense in the air grew stronger. Amid all the festivity, I met Xiao Xing’s pitch-black eyes.

Facing each other, I blinked, then gave the elegant, jade-like new husband before me a faint smile.

A ripple of suppressed gasps rose in the bridal chamber, followed by cheers and congratulations.

Red candles flickered, the atmosphere tender and alluring. Someone was singing: “When golden wind and jade dew meet, they surpass countless moments in the mortal world.”