The Third Year After I Was Expelled from the Eastern Palace

[Second Male Lead Takes the Lead] [Wife-Chasing at the Crematorium] [Coercive Possession] [Rivalry Among Men]

Jiang Yi was once the legitimate daughter and true heiress of the Feng family, the Vice Minister of Revenue's household. After seventeen years living away from home, she was finally brought back to claim her place in the family. But that identity was taken from her too, after she was driven out of the Eastern Palace.

She had never even met the Crown Prince. Yet when his beloved made a joking remark, he decided that Jiang Yi, who wore a peony hairpin, was flirtatious and unchaste, and expelled her from the Eastern Palace.

Afraid of offending the Crown Prince, the Feng family had no affection for her despite their shared blood. They immediately disowned her, claiming she had no ties to the family and was a bastard who had stolen a token and come to claim kinship on her own. She was condemned by everyone and left with nowhere to go in the capital.

She left the capital and wandered from place to place before marrying. Her husband was gentle and considerate, respecting and loving her, and never refusing her anything. Jiang Yi's life was simple but peaceful. While traveling to pray at a temple, she stayed for a time at a country villa, where she encountered the Crown Prince traveling incognito. To her astonishment, he fell in love with her at first sight and insisted on bringing her into the Eastern Palace.

When Crown Prince Xiao Lin was young, a woman saved his life. To repay her kindness, he brought her back to the palace, intending to make her Crown Princess. But after she remarked that a peony hairpin showed a woman's great ambition, he dismissed the unruly Feng family girl from the palace. He had never even seen her face, and thought little of it. The Feng daughter had been brought back to the family after years away; she was a country girl with no manners. The Feng family did not want the false daughter they had raised for seventeen years to become a secondary consort, so they pushed their biological daughter forward to take the blame.

She was merely a minister's daughter. If he wanted her gone, then gone she was. She was nothing special.

Three years later, while investigating a case on his father's behalf, he traveled through Jiangnan and stopped to admire the scenery. There he met a beauty and fell in love at first sight, then more deeply on their next meeting. From then on, he could neither eat nor sleep. After much hesitation, he finally gave in to lovesickness and decided to take her as a consort, personally visiting her home to propose.

The beauty introduced herself as Jiang Yi and said she already had a husband. Even after learning he was the Crown Prince, she neither panicked nor bowed in submission. She politely turned down his proposal and the position of Crown Princess he offered her.

"Your Highness and I do have a bit of history. I am the Feng girl you drove out of the Eastern Palace three years ago, on the grounds that my behavior was seductive and improper."

"Thank you for not marrying me back then. I have a husband now, and I am very happy." Jiang Yi spoke neither humbly nor arrogantly, her gaze calm and frank.

Xiao Lin could not meet her eyes. He felt as if he were being judged, and fled in disarray. But when he saw how affectionate she was with her husband, jealousy drove him mad, and so did regret.

She should have been his wife.

Content warning: The Crown Prince is not the male lead; someone else is. The Crown Prince gets his comeuppance, and not a speck of ash is left.

Theme: Pursuing a better life