Your Highness, I Must Marry You

The Pingyang Commandery Princess fell in love with me at first sight at a polo match and insisted she would marry no one but me. At the time, I had just become engaged to my beloved, Yue Niang. The princess didn’t care about the consequences and ordered her men to abduct Yue Niang and throw her into a brothel in the south. By the time I found her, she had refused to become a courtesan and had smashed her head against a pillar. Wild dogs had gnawed away her body. After returning, I changed my ways and fawned on the princess. On our wedding night, the beautiful bride’s face was reflected in our nuptial wine. I asked her if she still remembered Yue Niang. “A lowborn nobody with a worthless life. Why would I bother remembering her?” I smiled and sprinkled crane’s crown red into the wine.