Hate Like Before

From birth to death, I had no choice. It seemed my whole life was bound to this man. But who could know that beneath my noble title of imperial consort, he and I were, at best, strangers who had merely crossed paths? Si Luan, Si Luan, just a pair of phoenixes who happen to look alike. We spent our whole lives unable to cross that single step between us. History tells of Emperor Xiaozong of Ming, who took only one wife for his entire life, and Emperor Xianzong of Ming, who doted on Consort Wan, nineteen years his senior, for more than twenty years. To me, their stories are myths I can admire from afar but never reach. At last, one day, I decided to fight back. The pain I had suppressed for so many years erupted all at once. But when I finally understood what was in his heart, I no longer had the courage to raise the blade I had long since sharpened. The hatred remains as it was, the love seems gone. The grudge is rooted in my bones, yet my love is unchanged.