I once believed Shen Li was the only salvation I would ever have. When she was sixteen, she stormed the Princess’s residence to protect me. I carried my mother’s bloodstained clothes and knocked my head against the city gate a thousand times on the way to the palace, begging them to spare her life. After we married, she cherished me beyond measure. Everyone said I was her whole world. But later, she hid Zhang Chuan in the outskirts of the city and raised a blade against me for his sake. She let him throw away my mother’s pendant and trample my mother’s memorial tablet. On our wedding day, a fire broke out in our bedroom. She still managed to get me out safely, but then turned and drove a dagger into her own chest. She died.
