Tempting the Crown Prince

Jiang Fu is a liar.

She kept saying she was madly in love with her childhood sweetheart, then turned around and married his father.

Borne in a red-topped sedan chair beneath the night sky, she was carried through the palace gates.

Her childhood sweetheart tried to force his way into the palace, but the guards stopped him. He dug his hands into the doorframe, his nails splitting as blood welled up.

After that night, the young man disappeared.

Some said he had displeased the emperor and been banished beyond the frontier.

But whenever Jiang Fu woke from a dream at midnight, she could still recall the young man's wild, shadowed gaze on the night she entered the palace.

*

The emperor fell gravely ill and summoned the young man back to the capital.

Not long afterward, the young man was made crown prince.

The spirited young man she had once known was gone. In his place was a crown prince whom everyone feared and revered.

And yet, whenever he saw her, he would casually call her "Your Highness."

There was not a trace of respect in his voice, only loathing in his eyes.

*

The emperor died, and the whole nation mourned.

The consorts who had borne no children were to be buried with him.

No matter how glorious their lives had once been, now they would all become burial offerings.

Jiang Fu was one of them.

But Jiang Fu did not want to die.

Dressed in plain clothes and carrying a carefully prepared food box, she knocked on the Eastern Palace's door.

The man's love was fierce, and so was his hatred.

All night, the storm raged without pause.

Jiang Fu's clear eyes took on a seductive hue. "Your Highness, have you calmed down?"

The man's face darkened. Pressing his thin lips to her ear, he said hoarsely, "A-Fu, how could this be enough?"

Theme: There is always a way through every difficulty