On the Day the Crown Prince Broke Our Engagement, I Married His Imperial Uncle

Shen Zhaoning waited seven years for Xiao Chengyuan.

She began waiting the moment she stole a glance at him when their marriage was arranged on her coming-of-age day. Every night at the border, she kept his portrait under her pillow, thinking that once the war was over, she could return home and marry him. She thought this was the best path Heaven had laid out for her.

Until the day she returned to the capital.

She saw her fiancé with her own eyes, holding another woman in his arms atop the city gate tower.

He had once coaxed her the same way: “Once I break off the engagement, I’ll marry you and make you Crown Princess.”

Shen Zhaoning stood below the tower, gripping the reins. Her hand trembled once.

But she didn’t cry.

Three years earlier, her father had died on the battlefield. At sixteen, she took command of the Zhenbei Army. When she crawled out of a heap of corpses, she understood one thing.

The day their engagement was broken, Xiao Chengyuan sat above her and looked down. She still remembered that look perfectly.

“Shen Zhaoning, you’re an orphan with neither father nor brothers. Once you leave me, who would dare marry you?”

Shen Zhaoning smiled.

In front of all his assembled officials, she handed over the document ending their engagement, then turned and walked away.

A dark carriage waited outside the Crown Prince’s residence. Its curtain lifted, revealing a face that made the entire court tremble.

Prince Jing, Xiao Xuanye, the Crown Prince’s own uncle, a regent renowned for his military achievements, and the person Xiao Chengyuan feared most.

He held out a hand to her and said quietly, “Zhaoning, get in.”

“Uncle!” Xiao Chengyuan shouted behind them, his expression changing at once. “What do you mean by this?”

“What I mean is none of your business.”

That year, Shen Zhaoning married her former fiancé’s own uncle.