Preparing the Spring Clothes

Siyin was once the most honored princess of the dynasty, Princess Chengsong, renowned throughout the land for her immortal beauty.

Her royal father searched high and low before choosing Sui Jiyun, the son of the chief minister, to serve as her study attendant and keep her company.

Everyone in the capital said Sui Jiyun would become the future prince consort, that he and the princess would soon marry and make a perfect match.

But then the tides turned. Her father died, the kingdom fell, the palace was destroyed, and rebel forces rose everywhere.

Siyin was driven from home and fled for a long time.

But in the end, no rescuers came. Instead, she fell into a trap set by Sui Jiyun.

She heard his gentle, cool voice say, “Your Highness, please don’t blame me.”

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When Siyin woke again, Sui Jiyun had offered her to Xie Zhi, commander of the Royalist Army and the regent who held power over all the realm.

Everyone knew that Xie Zhi’s father, Prince Chen, had been executed by imperial decree. In his hands, Siyin was unlikely to meet a happy end.

Yet Xie Zhi seemed to have forgotten all about it and did not mistreat her.

Those days in the prince’s residence were the last moments of peace Siyin had in a life of upheaval and wandering.

Later, Siyin burned herself to death in a fire at a palace banquet. As she lay dying, she heard someone calling her name, their cries anguished and bloodcurdling.

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Siyin was reborn in the twenty-third year of the Jiayuan era.

That year, Sui Jiyun had yet to enter the palace as her study companion, while Xie Zhi, a hostage prince, had just arrived in the capital.

And she was still the lofty Princess Chengsong.

The emperor hosted a banquet for his officials, hoping to find a study companion to serve as an attendant for his youngest daughter.

Amid the layers of lamplight, Sui Jiyun remembered his promise to Siyin and waited for her eager, bright eyes to turn toward him.

Instead, she smiled and pointed a slender finger at Xie Zhi. “The heir of Prince Chen has such fine bearing. I choose him.”

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Choosing Xie Zhi as her study companion was only Siyin’s first step toward revenge.

But after spending more time with him, Siyin began to feel that Xie Zhi’s gaze seemed a little strange.

Had this future regent, as clever as a demon, already seen through her revenge plan?

But Siyin might never know that, in both her past and present lives, the young Xie Zhi had arrived in the capital penniless, yet would rather pawn his spring clothes and spend every last coin he had to buy her a gift worthy of her.

It was a golden butterfly hairpin, fastened in the princess’s elaborate coiffure, adorned with pearls and jade. It was so inconspicuous, just like the love Xie Zhi hid in his heart, unable to confess.

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