East Palace Melon Eating Handbook - Chapter 1

Chapter 1

I was the Crown Prince’s discarded wife, and also the person in the entire imperial palace who knew the most secrets.

Three years ago, my father, Chancellor You, fell from power, and I was dragged down with him. I was stripped of my position as Crown Princess, and the former Consort Xu took my place.

Heartbroken, I fell gravely ill. At the same time, I lost both my hearing and my ability to speak.

His lawful wife had suddenly become deaf and mute. The Crown Prince took pity on me and allowed me to live alone in Yizhu Garden, the most remote corner of the East Palace, where no one was permitted to disturb me.

But no one knew that I was faking it.

Ever since I was little, I had never liked interacting with people. If I could have gotten away with never stepping out the door for the rest of my life, I would have.

But after becoming Crown Princess, I had to socialize from morning till night. Every single day was torture.

Now that I had finally been deposed, I thought no one would bother with me anymore. Instead, a whole swarm of people suddenly appeared, offering me their insincere condolences. They annoyed me half to death.

So I simply pretended to be deaf and mute.

Those who wanted to use me to feel superior put on fake concern and talked at me until their mouths went dry.

Me: “Ah-ba, ah-ba, ah-ba.”

After a few rounds of that, my world finally became peaceful.

But I never expected that I had celebrated too soon.

The small fry stopped coming to bother me, yes. But the people who started coming were more important than the last.

The first to visit me was the former Consort Xu, now the Crown Princess.

Back when I was still Crown Princess, she and I had never gotten along.

My illness had not even fully passed before she came to mock me.

“You Tingxue, so this day has come for you too? In the past, you were as cold as ice and so arrogant to everyone. Who would have thought you would end up deaf in both ears and unable to speak?”

“How pitiful. If I were you, fallen to this state, I might as well hang myself and be done with it!”

She launched into a haughty tirade right in my face. She might as well have carved the words petty villain drunk on success onto her forehead.

As for me, I simply held my steaming bowl of medicine and drank it slowly, my expression dull and vacant, perfectly playing the part of someone who could not hear a thing.

“Forget it. Why am I arguing with a deaf woman? But it’s no wonder you were so detestable back then. This Crown Princess position simply isn’t fit for a human being!”

After mocking me for ages, she apparently found it boring. She picked out a cushioned stool and sat down, then actually began complaining to me about the East Palace.

“I truly cannot understand it. His Majesty is such a brilliant and mighty man, so how is his son this useless? It’s just archery! His Majesty hits the target every time, but the Crown Prince misses every single shot. What a worthless thing!”

I nearly failed to hold back a laugh.

Well, well, Xu Ning. So this was how you talked about the Crown Prince in private!

When she was competing with me for favor, she praised the Crown Prince to the heavens. Behind his back, though, she had been so furious after he embarrassed her by missing the target that she had not slept all night, cursing him as useless three hundred times in her heart.

I lowered my head, took another sip of medicine, and kept listening as she grumbled and tore into the Crown Prince.

But because of her next sentence, I suddenly choked on a huge mouthful and started coughing violently.