Roses Should Have Thorns

(No transmigration, no rebirth, no transmigration into a book, no System, no pocket dimension, and no golden fingers.) I was an orphan with no parents, and I had lived with my uncle’s family since I was five. My uncle was hard to judge, but my aunt was rotten to the core. When I turned thirteen, I had grown so pretty that my aunt decided to sell me to a brothel for a high price. Luckily, my cousin overheard her. He couldn’t bear to tell me the terrible news. The next afternoon, I stole my aunt’s money and ran away. Rather than let my aunt sell me to such a filthy place, I figured I might as well sell myself to a wealthy family as a low-ranking maid. But when bad luck strikes, even a drink of cold water can make you choke. By a twist of fate, I ended up in the hands of a trafficker. I thought my life was over, but it turned out I was simply too pretty. The trafficker sent me to the capital, hoping to sell me for a good price. Eventually, I was sold as a maid into Prince Yong’an’s residence in the capital. There, I saw that the princess consort was nowhere near as pretty as I was. Yet she lorded it over everyone because she was the Consort Dowager Shu’s niece and the prince’s cousin. I began to feel resentful. Why should someone so utterly ordinary get to hold such a lofty position? Why should I, with my extraordinary beauty, have to rank beneath her? So I used every trick I could to seduce the master of the prince’s residence, Prince Yong’an. With my pretty face and clever mind, I really did manage to win over the haughty Prince Yong’an.