The Peerless Beauty Forced into Marriage

You were born exceptionally beautiful. After seeing you, a revered monk once read your fortune and said that one day you would become a bewitching beauty who would bring a kingdom to ruin.

When you first heard this, you felt frightened and aggrieved. You had no ambitions; you only wanted to live an ordinary life. You did not believe the monk's prediction, yet those words weighed on you like a thousand-pound stone.

In the tenth year of Tianshun, famine struck your hometown. Your parents died while fleeing the famine, and you were later separated from your older brother. A wealthy merchant took you in because of your looks, and from then on, you became a pipa player.

Though pipa players belonged to the lowest social class, at least you had survived. Your only wish in life was to find your lost brother and live in peace.

Yet the monk's prophecy clung to you like a curse.

When you grew up, you became a peerless beauty and fell in love with someone. But your master offered you to the powerful Prince Jing, who was then the emperor's son, and you became his plaything.

Fortunately, Prince Jing cherished and loved you. You rose from favored concubine to princess consort, and the two of you lived in harmony and happiness, until the day you entered the palace to meet the emperor.

His gaze was deep and strange, making you uneasy. It was far too similar to the way Prince Jing had once looked at you.

After that, you were always anxious. Your life was clearly happy, yet you often found yourself silently weeping. When Prince Jing asked what was wrong, you shook your head without answering, and the dread in your heart only grew stronger.

Sure enough, Prince Jing's mother fell ill and died. Heartbroken, the emperor summoned you to the palace to keep him company.

Later, the emperor resorted to unscrupulous means to take his son's wife for himself. He made an exception and bestowed upon you the title of Noble Consort, placing you above the Four Consorts. It was an honor beyond compare.

But none of this was what you wanted. In despair and helplessness, you simply accepted your fate.

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After you became Noble Consort, the emperor doted on you alone, wishing he could pluck the moon from the sky for you to play with. You bewitched his mind, and he gradually neglected state affairs, giving himself over to sensual pleasures and lavish indulgence.

Everyone said you were a fox spirit who had bewitched the ruler, a beauty who would bring ruin to the kingdom. Exhausted in body and mind, you couldn't help but weep, then smile bitterly.

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Later, a military governor commanding a powerful army rebelled. The once-prosperous empire collapsed completely and was plunged into war.

You fled to a post station, where the Imperial Guards mutinied and demanded that the emperor order Noble Consort to die.

"The army will never be at peace unless Noble Consort dies!"

"She's a calamity!"

The emperor wept, but helplessly gave the order to execute you.

Looking at the three-foot length of white silk brought before you, you suddenly understood. At last, you saw the man who had once showered you with every kindness for what he truly was.

The emperor asked if you had any last words.

Suddenly, you felt such hatred and resentment. What had you done wrong?

You only wanted to reunite with your brother. You wanted to tell the world that you were not a beauty who brought ruin, and your name was not Xue Ji. You had a name and a surname. You were called Chen Eying.

You only wanted to live.

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In the end, you survived. You took control of your own fate and became the most revered and powerful woman in all the Central Plains.

The life of a peerless beauty who was taken by force.

Content warnings: The heroine has had many men. This is a story of love and hate with many different men.

A melodramatic wish-fulfillment story. The heroine is very weak from the start. This is not a strong-female-lead story or a power fantasy; it focuses more on personal growth.

There are many doomed male supporting characters, including fathers and sons, brothers, ministers, warlords, and eunuchs.

Inspired by history and modeled after the Tang dynasty, but please don't nitpick the historical details.

Theme: Strive onward and never bow to hardship.