On the Day of the Substitute Marriage, the Second Prince Chased Me Out of the City

[From death warrior to empress | transmigrate | a modern soul climbs the ladder in ancient times | a fake princess in a replacement marriage, with real love | all male leads are sexually inexperienced | empowering fiction for women | clear-eyed heroine, cold-faced man doing the laundry]

The Crown Prince told me to sleep with his younger brother in exchange for a token.

I did. I got the token. But he went mad.

Later, I found a man at the border.

He was covered in blood and close to death.

I took him home and ordered every servant to stay silent, so that when he opened his eyes, he would see only me.

He told me his name was Rong Yu.

I didn’t expose him. I recognized the black jade dragon-patterned token at his waist. The emperor of Chu, Murong Yu.

When the emperor of Chu came to ask for a marriage alliance, the Crown Prince ordered me to take the princess’s place and marry abroad.

On the day I was to leave, the Second Prince chased me out of the city on horseback and knelt before the three armies, begging me not to go.

The Eldest Princess wept so hard on the palace road that she nearly fainted.

After spending one last night with me, Crown Prince Xiao Jue changed his mind and told me not to go through with the marriage.

I drugged the Crown Prince unconscious, then set out for the marriage alliance without hesitation.

He didn’t know.

None of them knew.

The emperor was the man I’d found on the road, and I had maneuvered step by step to make that marriage alliance happen.

And that arrogant young emperor had already fallen under my spell while he slept, thanks to the love-inspiring Gu I planted in him.

From then on, his life was mine, his heart was mine, and his entire empire would be mine.

Later, when the emperor died, his ministers demanded that I be buried with him.

That night, I knocked on the Regent’s door.

They all thought I was a discarded pawn, sent to take someone else’s place in marriage.

They didn’t know that from the very first day I entered this world, I had never come here to be a pawn.

Virtue is a shackle, and love is a diversion. All I ever wanted was the dragon throne.