Fate Is Inescapable: The Painted-Skin Demon Enters the Palace

I was chosen to be the tyrant’s consort because I looked exactly like his favorite consort, who had died suddenly.

On my first night in the palace, I found my elder sister’s blood-written note beneath the dressing table: “Run. This palace is full of ghosts.”

The tyrant ordered me to wear my sister’s old clothes, put on her jewelry, and even use the same incense.

Late at night, a mournful song came from my sister’s bedchamber. The palace servants all said it was a vengeful ghost demanding a life.

I pushed open the door, only to find that my sister’s final blood-written note had mysteriously vanished from the table.

At a banquet hosted by the tyrant, I accidentally smashed his beloved antique teacup from a former dynasty. He smiled and lifted my chin between his fingers.

“Never mind. I love seeing a beauty look frightened.”

His fingertips were icy, like a serpent sliding over my skin.

I knelt outside the hall to atone. As the rain poured down, he held an umbrella over me.

“My beloved consort is soaked. It pains my heart.”

I looked up and saw that he wore the jade pendant my sister had loved most.