After the Fall of the Kingdom

The fallen princess Xie Yufang awoke from a nightmare. She had discovered that she was back on the eve of her kingdom's destruction and her family's death. But she had returned at the worst possible time. The next day, she, a washed-up princess of the former dynasty, and her daughter would be strangled with a white silk cord in her husband's household. On the day the city fell, Xie Yufang bound herself and knelt before the new emperor's horse. With both hands, she presented the long whip she had once used to beat him, waiting for fate to pass judgment. Beneath the scorching sun, she met the unreadable gaze of the new emperor, Huo Xin. The boy who had once led her horse and helped her mount in her private residence had grown into an emperor whose feelings were impossible to read. Xie Yufang did not dare raise her head. She was even afraid that the emperor on horseback would order her beaten to death. Instead, the new emperor lifted her chin with his riding crop. After leaving her heart in turmoil, he said,