The Slaying of Jinli

When I caught my fiancé in bed with my half-sister, I turned around and smashed the plaque above the Prime Minister's residence.

The whole capital said the useless princess was lashing out in humiliation, but they didn't know I'd wanted to dump that scumbag for ages.

On my way out of the capital to clear my head, the heir to a marquis's estate, who was being hunted, suddenly grabbed my skirt. “Save me, and name your price.”

I glanced at the secret canal transport order at his waist and smiled, holding up three fingers.

“First, find out what's really behind the missing salt and canal-tax revenue in Jiangnan. My emperor uncle's secret decree is just waiting for someone to wield the knife.”

“Second, pretend to be my new love and make my former fiancé furious.”

“Third... stay away from me on the road. Your wound stinks.”

But the wounded nuisance insisted on sticking close while he recovered, and kept “accidentally” tugging open my sash.

On the day we returned to the capital, he stopped my carriage in the street. “The third condition is void.”

“Can't you marry the daughter of your enemy and make her your marquis's heir's consort?” I lifted the curtain and sneered. “That suits me just fine...”

Before I could finish, he kissed the blood on my fingertip and chuckled.

“Who said I wanted to marry you? I'll replace the third condition with this: help me have a useless little princess.”

Later, in the Golden Throne Hall, the Prime Minister's son knelt and begged me to take him back.

I, the newly appointed princess in charge of Jiangnan's salt and canal transport, lounged in the heir's arms and toyed with the iron-sealed pardon he'd just confiscated.

“My husband these days is best at turning the cremation-ground into a place to scatter ashes...”

And from the dragon throne, my uncle smiled at the list of corrupt officials we'd presented. “Good smash! That plaque deserved to be broken!”