Old Dreams of Yuanxi

Yuan Xi was once the most exalted princess of Great Yan. In a single coup, her parents and brothers were slaughtered, and she alone barely survived, only to be kept in the imperial harem as the new emperor's treasured captive.

The new emperor was born a slave. He earned the favor of the court after being recommended by Commandery Princess Sijia, then rose to become a great general through his military achievements. When she was seven, Yuan Xi overheard her father denounce him as an ambitious traitor. So at a welcome banquet, she deliberately brought up his ambiguous past with Commandery Princess Sijia to make things difficult for him.

She was the apple of the emperor and empress's eye, and Great Yan's only princess. Always haughty, she had never thought much of him, a man born a slave. But when she was twelve, a coup happened overnight. He climbed to the throne over the corpses of her loved ones, while she became his prisoner.

The new emperor set out to humiliate her. Though she was a princess, he sent her down to the palace laundry, where every servant knew she had once offended him and took every opportunity to shame her. Yuan Xi endured the humiliation for three years, finally finding a chance to get close enough to assassinate him, only to be easily seized by the guards.