Xue Rongzhao was breathtakingly beautiful, with a face as delicate as thin clouds. Unfortunately, she was the emperor’s shameful love child.
After she was sent from the palace to the Fu estate, the young master of the Fu family, Fu Xunjia, took pity on her. For a time, he showered her with gold and jewels, fine silks and brocades, and boundless affection.
Xue Rongzhao thought they were in love, and everyone else thought so too. They all believed Fu Xunjia and Xue Rongzhao would end up together.
Until the day of his capping ceremony. The occasion was magnificent, with gifts stretching around the capital three times over. The emperor’s true favorite, the Third Princess, also attended. She had bullied Xue Rongzhao for decades while they were in the palace.
That day, the Third Princess fell into the water and screamed accusations at Xue Rongzhao.
Fu Xunjia kept the matter quiet.
"Would you be willing to become a concubine and serve Xunjia and the Third Princess well from now on?" the usually kind and gentle matriarch asked with consideration. "I originally meant to make you a secondary wife, but after what you did to the Third Princess, an act that defies all reason, I have to soothe her as well."
Xue Rongzhao could hardly believe it. Fu Xunjia knew perfectly well how wicked the Third Princess was, yet he still wanted her to share a husband with her.
It turned out Fu Xunjia believed the Third Princess. He believed that the spoiled princess had pushed her into the water out of spite.
She had been so spoiled that she’d forgotten: she was nothing but a stain the emperor refused to acknowledge. She had the title of princess in name only, and was despised by both the emperor and the empress dowager. How could someone as dazzling as Fu Xunjia marry her?
The future head of the Fu family would marry the most highborn young lady in the capital.
From the very beginning, he had never intended to marry her. Their supposed love was nothing more than wishful thinking on her part.
Heartbroken, Xue Rongzhao rejected the matriarch’s offer and prepared to leave the capital.
Perhaps out of old affection, the Fu family still remembered the past, despite the enormous evil she had committed. They did not cut ties completely, and sent her by carriage to Yingchuan to marry Fu Chengxue, a member of a branch family that had moved to the capital years earlier and was still studying for the imperial examinations.
Life flowed by like still water.
In the third year of their marriage, Fu Chengxue traveled to the capital to take the metropolitan examination, and Xue Rongzhao accompanied him.
The emperor summoned Fu Chengxue and the others to the palace to determine their rankings.
Outside the palace examination hall, Xue Rongzhao saw Fu Xunjia again. He had already inherited his title and become a high-ranking official, and had married the Third Princess.
The man’s expression was unreadable.
As they faced each other from afar, Fu Chengxue, noble and immaculate, walked over across the stone path. Ignoring Fu Xunjia, he brushed a flower from Xue Rongzhao’s shoulder and took her hand. "I’m sorry to have kept Your Highness waiting."
Xue Rongzhao’s ears turned pink. His sudden intimacy left her flustered.
"I haven’t been waiting long... Will you place first in the examination?"
Fu Chengxue smiled. "Your Highness is a princess of noble birth. This subject will make sure that everything goes as Your Highness wishes."
Xue Rongzhao blushed. She still wasn’t used to Fu Chengxue addressing her so respectfully as "Your Highness," but it gave her a sense of security.
The haughty young master Fu, who had always held himself above others, watched Fu Chengxue and Xue Rongzhao holding hands in trust. His gaze grew darker.
Xue Rongzhao was clearly living in harmony with the husband she had carefully chosen, and Fu Xunjia should have been happy for her. Yet as he watched in silence, jealousy slowly burned within him.
He couldn’t accept that the former apple of his eye was now cherished by someone else.
He never imagined that later he would go mad for Xue Rongzhao, consumed by obsession and regret.
Theme: Never give up hope
