It's Hard Being the Empress - Chapter 1

The Emperor reclined against the headboard of the imperial bed, his chest heaving.

He plainly wanted to beat these two scandalous degenerates to death with his own fists.

The Crown Prince and the Second Prince each held half of a pendant carved from creamy white jade. Twining lotus stems covered both pieces—the Crown Prince’s bore the calyx, while the Second Prince’s bore the heart of the flower.

Put together, they formed a single lotus.

The Crown Prince narrowed his eyes. The Second Prince ground his back teeth. Both stared straight at me.

I swallowed and shuffled closer to the Emperor, trying desperately to save myself.

“Why are you looking at me?

“I’ve only been in the palace for a month. How could I possibly know about your… um, affair?

“Your Majesty, if they’re already flaunting their love token before you, they’ll be asking you to approve their marriage next.”

Just as I had hoped, the Emperor’s fury blazed anew.

“How did the House of Xiao produce two monsters like you?”

He kicked each of them, then roared, “Fifty lashes apiece! Kneel in the ancestral shrine for three days and three nights and reflect on what you’ve done!”

The Crown Prince gave a cold laugh, abandoning every trace of his mild, gentlemanly facade. His dark, obsessive gaze seemed hot enough to burn a hole through me.

“Your son acknowledges his fault. Once I have reflected, I will be sure to settle accounts with the person who gave me this jade.”

The Second Prince’s hard, handsome profile went taut, and his voice was chilling.

“I, too, intend to demand an explanation from her.”

Even as the palace attendants dragged them away, they kept their eyes fixed on me.

What a disaster.

I covered my face and curled into a ball.

How was I supposed to know they would bring out both halves at the same time?

What had happened between the Second Prince and me had been a complete accident.

I was the Emperor’s fourth empress.

The first had died. The second had gone mad. The third had been deposed.

No one else dared accept the miserable position, so my family shoved me into the palace as a figurehead. One month after the wedding, I had yet even to meet my husband.

I did my best not to invite trouble.

Trouble came looking for me anyway.

Consort Li drugged my wine.

My skin burned and my cheeks flushed scarlet. I tried to go outside and call for help, but the Second Prince—fresh from a victorious campaign on the northern frontier—sauntered into my chambers and locked the door behind him.

He had not yet removed his black iron armor. The plates seemed to carry the bitter cold and killing aura of the battlefield.

He advanced one measured step at a time.

“Liu Mingfu. It really is you.

“When people told me the Liu family’s second daughter had married my father, I refused to believe them.

“Have you forgotten how I saved you? Or how you promised to repay me by marrying me?”

My eyes went round with shock, and my legs turned to noodles. I retreated until the backs of my knees struck the bed.

“Y-you’re alive.”

The Second Prince watched me with a predator’s dark gaze, as though I were prey caught helplessly in his web.

“Yes. I survived—and I came back to collect my debt.”

Three years ago, my father’s legitimate daughter had hired thugs to abduct me.

The Second Prince happened to pass by and rescued me. After that, he often climbed the wall of the marquis’s estate to see me.

He would tuck the most sought-after sugar cakes in the capital inside his robes and press them, still warm, into my hands. On nights of thunder and driving rain, he would sit beside my bed without speaking and simply hold my icy hand tight.

He had promised that once he returned from the northern frontier with military honors, he would ask his father to decree our marriage.

Now a cold smile curved his lips.

“For three years on the frontier, I escaped death more times than I can count. Whenever I thought I might die, I wondered what would become of you.

“Meanwhile, you lived happily in the capital—and turned around and made yourself Empress.”

He stepped closer and clamped a hand around my chin. His fingers were as unyielding as an iron band, and his grip hurt.

“Liu Mingfu, how can someone so beautiful be so heartless?

“Tell me. How should I take my revenge?”

The drug surged hotter through me, a fire raging through my organs.

A low cry escaped me. My brows drew tight, and an unexpected tear splashed onto the rough back of his hand.

“You’re hurting me.”

He released me as though the tear had scalded him. For a moment, he actually looked flustered.

“Why… why are you crying?”

I pouted.

“I feel awful…”

I had no idea what sort of “lover” Consort Li had originally arranged for me. He was probably either hideous or riddled with disease.

The man before me, on the other hand, was a young general covered in military glory—tall, broad-shouldered, powerful, and lean.

The choice was not difficult.

I closed my eyes, pulled the Second Prince down by the neck, and kissed his cheek.

My voice came out soft and tearful.

“Don’t be angry anymore. Help me with the drug.”