In the fourth year of Jianxing, Luoyang fell.
Princess Sima Wan fled to a Buddhist temple, but the rebel army found her anyway. She was extraordinarily beautiful. Even dirty and disheveled, she could not hide her noble bearing.
The rebels meant to present her to their leader. On the way through the outskirts of Luoyang, she leaped from the carriage in the night and tumbled down a ravine.
When she woke, an old, coarse robe had been laid over her.
A young man sat beside the bed. Dressed in a black, rough-woven jacket, his knuckles were calloused as he whittled a wooden hairpin with a dagger. He flashed a grin. "Little lady, don't be afraid. I'm an honest man."
Later, whenever she thought of those three words, she wanted to grind her teeth to dust.
His name was Xiao Zhu. He was Luoyang's most useless gallant, fond of cockfighting and dog racing, with a battered, notched saber at his waist.
He didn't know who she was. He only thought that the woman he'd picked up was too beautiful to be real, with snow-white skin and a graceful neck. When her clear, bright eyes glared at him, they were like blades dipped in icy springs, making his whole body tingle.
"What's your name?"
She didn't answer.
"Not telling? Then I'll call you A-Man." He grinned and leaned closer. "Man as in 'headstrong.'"
She turned her face away, her ears burning red.
He took her in, eating bran and wild greens himself while breaking a white-flour bun into pieces, soaking it in mutton soup, and bringing it to her.
In a troubled world, a helpless young woman had nowhere to go. She thought: I'll endure it for now.
And so she endured for three years.
*
Two years later, she became his wife. There was no matchmaker, no marriage certificate,
just him, drunk, pinning her against a wall, his hot breath on her neck as he said, "A-Man, come with me."
She couldn't bring herself to say yes, and she had no room to say no.
A year later, she gave birth to a daughter.
He was neither particularly good to her nor particularly bad. In bed, he whispered all manner of vulgar, shameless, irreverent things in her ear, demanding her without restraint like a ravenous wolf that could never be satisfied.
She despised the greedy, arrogant, infatuated look in his eyes whenever he gazed at her.
That year, during the Flower Goddess procession, he had stood among the crowd and caught a distant glimpse of the princess in her phoenix palanquin. That fleeting sight stayed with him for years.
He never imagined that one day the peony would fall into his muddy grasp.
*
In the seventh year of Jianxing, her elder brother Sima Shao ascended the throne. An imperial proclamation was issued throughout the land, searching for the princess and calling her back to the palace.
She was frighteningly calm. That night, when he put his arms around her, she didn't struggle for the first time.
At last, she could leave the villain. After three years of misery and bearing him a daughter, she wanted nothing more.
The palace sent an escort to fetch her, its procession grand and splendid. Sima Wan changed into court attire, jewels adorning her hair, once again the untouchable princess of the peonies.
A palace attendant quietly asked if she wanted the ruffian from the streets dealt with. After a long silence, she nodded.
But when the Imperial Guards surrounded the dilapidated courtyard, the house was already empty. Even the newborn baby girl was gone.
*
Four years later.
The northern campaign swept through the land, taking city after city and reclaiming a third of the lost territory.
The commander was Xiao Zhu, bearing the titles of Commissioner with Imperial Authority, Grand Commander of All Military Affairs Inside and Outside the Capital, and General Who Conquers the North. Everyone knew his name.
The emperor held a banquet to reward the army. Xiao Zhu entered the palace in armor, carrying in his arms a little girl of three or four, as lovely as carved jade. There was a familiar likeness in her features.
He knelt in the main hall and declared, "Your servant's wife died young, and I have only this daughter. I humbly ask to marry Your Majesty's younger sister."
The whole hall erupted in astonishment.
Emperor Sima Shao frowned. "My younger sister?"
"Princess Sima Wan." He raised his head and looked past the assembled courtiers to the graceful silhouette behind the curtain. He grinned, though the smile never reached his eyes. "Known as the Jade Beauty, the Princess of the Peonies. Virtuous, talented, and peerlessly beautiful. I have reclaimed the realm for Your Majesty. I ask only for her as my reward."
Behind the curtain, Sima Wan clenched her hand, her nails digging into her palm.
In four years, he had changed. The roguishness had faded from his features, replaced by the sharpness and composure of a blade.
But that was still the same face, belonging to the same villain who had used every means to devour her whole and still wanted more.
The little girl in his arms looked around curiously, and happened to glance in her direction.
"Your Majesty," Xiao Zhu said slowly, each word clear, "my daughter deserves a mother."
In the dead silence of the hall, he turned his head slightly and gazed over with a faint, knowing smile through the beaded curtain.
Those eyes were still greedy, still arrogant.
Could she say no this time?
Cool, refined jade beauty x shameless, roguish rascal
Theme: To be determined.
