Imperial Uncle

It was a snowy night, the wind blowing through the drifts.

My long-absent imperial uncle deliberately got drunk at the banquet. Braving the storm, he entered her bedchamber, forced her down on the bed, and seized her face, demanding, "Manman, do you love me?"

Thinking of her husband, the prince consort who had died unjustly beyond the frontier, she clenched her teeth and glared at him furiously, refusing to answer.

"Then... do you hate me?"

That night, she went from being a princess of the realm to her imperial uncle's woman.

Her uncle said he loved her. He was deeply attached to this bedchamber, this little world where the two of them had eaten and slept together, holding hands and relying on each other for twelve years. He said that only when he held her and lay drunk beside her, making love to her until they were spent, could he taste what it meant to be alive.

He said he could give her anything, asking only that she take pity on him and not leave.

But, Uncle, if you say you love me so often, why break my wings and turn me from an eagle soaring freely over the grasslands into a caged bird for you to toy with day and night?

Leave? Yuan Manqing looks at her legs, long since crippled, and thinks sadly: Can she even "leave"?

Reader's guide:

One-on-one romance. The leads are not related by blood.

Cover art courtesy of Caoxi You.

Theme: The meaning of life is to stay by your side.