The Peach Blossom Spring - Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Standing on Shenwu Street in the bustling capital, I pinched my thigh.

It hurt.

So I wasn’t dreaming. But why had that vegetable-selling auntie said it was the Jin’an 19th Year?

I remembered it clearly. This year was supposed to be the twelfth year of Jin’an…

Following the route I knew by heart, I arrived at the gates of Prince Chun’s Mansion. When I saw the sealed doors and the mottled stone lions at the entrance, my daze only deepened.

How had the once-luxurious Prince Chun’s Mansion fallen into this state?!

Not far away, a few people were enjoying the shade beneath a large tree.

I could faintly hear them talking.

“Tsk, tsk. Someone else has come to look at Prince Chun’s Mansion. It’s in ruins now, but there are still desperate thieves who sneak in all the time to rummage around.”

“If you ask me, Prince Chun’s Mansion was truly glorious seven years ago. Prince Chun held great power and prestige, Princess Consort Chun’s maternal family was the Imperial Merchant of Great Jin, and Commandery Princess Yong’an was the capital’s greatest talented lady…”

“Commandery Princess Yongning was rather ordinary by comparison. What a pity. She had such a miserable fate…”

“Miserable? Even after she died, she could still…”

The plain, unremarkable Commandery Princess Yongning they were talking about was me. Their voices dropped, so I hurried closer.

Then I heard them continue.

“Prince Chun must have lost his mind. He had such a good life, yet he insisted on fighting for the highest seat of power. Well, look what happened. The entire mansion was confiscated.”

My eyes widened in shock.
Seven years ago, during a lake outing, I accidentally fell into the water. Who would have thought there was an undercurrent beneath the lake? It swept me away in an instant.

When I woke up, I had already been washed onto the shore.

Some villagers found me and warmly took me home to recuperate.

It was a beautiful place, with peach trees planted everywhere. The season had not yet arrived, but the peach blossoms were already in full, brilliant bloom.

The villagers were all very friendly. Men, women, old and young, every one of them smiled and laughed each day.

They invited me to visit their homes, gave me peach blossom wine, and pulled me along to sing and dance.

I was happy too. After staying there for six days in a row, my injuries had fully healed, and I began thinking of leaving.

After all, there were still people waiting for me outside.

That mute guard of mine was the most stubborn man alive. If he couldn’t find me, he would probably put down roots by the lake.

At first, the villagers urged me to stay. Later, seeing that I was determined, they had no choice but to point me toward a path.

I followed that winding little trail and climbed and climbed, climbing for nearly a day and a night.

At daybreak the next morning, I finally reached the top.

The exit turned out to be right beside the lake where I had fallen in. I didn’t think too much about it and immediately headed back to the mansion.

But I never expected… everything to have gone so terribly wrong.

I had stayed in that village for seven days, yet after I came out, seven years had passed.

Seven years…

The people of the capital said that Commandery Princess Yongning of Prince Chun’s Mansion had fallen into the water seven years ago and vanished without a trace.

The following year, Prince Chun rebelled. His uprising failed, and the entire mansion fell from grace overnight.

It was too much information. It took me a long time to digest it all.

Now, penniless, I had no choice but to find a ruined temple to shelter in.

In truth, the fall of Prince Chun’s Mansion did not grieve me all that much.

Although I was Commandery Princess Yongning, that title had only been granted to me two years before I fell into the water.

From the time I was little, I had always been a maidservant at Yong’an’s side.

The lowest kind of maidservant, at that.

My birth mother had been nothing more than a performer. After Prince Chun took a fancy to her and favored her for one night, she became pregnant with me.

Later, when my mother fell gravely ill, she risked her life to deliver me to the gates of Prince Chun’s Mansion.

She thought she had fought to give me a smooth road in life. She never imagined she was sending me into an abyss.

Prince Chun’s Mansion did indeed take me in. From then on, the rear courtyard gained one more lowly servant girl who could be beaten and cursed at will.

Princess Consort Chun loathed me. Every time she saw me, she was reminded of Prince Chun’s old romantic escapades.

And so, she went out of her way to torment me.

As for Yong’an, she was practically carved from the same mold as her mother.

The same harshness, the same cruelty, the same arrogance.

Prince Chun, for his part, had never once treated me as his biological daughter.

After so many years, I had grown used to it.

Until the year I turned fifteen-the year Prince Chun’s Mansion stood at the height of its power.

Countless noble families wanted to form a marriage alliance with Prince Chun’s Mansion, but Commandery Princess Yong’an had been betrothed since childhood to the son of the Minister of Works.

Prince Chun was unwilling to waste such a perfect opportunity for alliance.

And so, he pushed me forward.

In the blink of an eye, I transformed into the delicate second young lady who had been raised in the countryside since childhood. Prince Chun even petitioned for an imperial decree on my behalf, granting me the title of Commandery Princess Yongning.

He tried to package me as something more valuable, all so he could exchange me for greater benefits…