Spring Blossoms at Tang Hall

[Mutually devoted, proud and noble prince vs. frail orphan girl] The first time Xiao Chi saw Jiang Xintang, she was fifteen, crouched beside a flowerbed and crying. Perhaps because he had killed too many people and his hands were stained with blood, seeing her struck a chord deep in his soul. He thought she was pure and lovely. But when he learned who she was, he returned to the Northern Frontier. After that, though, whenever night fell and all was quiet, he would remember the innocent girl by the flowerbed… The first time Jiang Xintang saw Xiao Chi was at the banquet welcoming him home. Her stepfather was trying to secure an official post and had sent her to the old Minister’s bed. She escaped and hid in the guest room where Xiao Chi was changing, begging him to save her. The man remained unmoved, so she changed her plea: “Take me.” He granted her wish. Afterward, Jiang Xintang’s mother brought her before him and instructed her, “Call him big brother.” With the marks he had just left still visible on her neck, Jiang Xintang didn’t dare raise her head. Timidly, she called him big brother. She had lost her father young and followed her mother into the Duke’s residence, becoming the stepdaughter of its third branch, low in status. He, by contrast, was the powerful Prince of Beiding, noble, cunning, and ruthless. Jiang Xintang didn’t dare provoke him again. Yet in the dead of night, he would repeatedly pull her forcefully into his arms, his passion burning fiercely. He even said, “Bear me a son, Tangtang.” Later, she bore him a son and a daughter, but he placed her on the phoenix throne, while their children were registered under the new emperor’s name. He held the new emperor and the entire court in his grip. One day, after enduring every manner of torment, she clutched her son and seized his hand. “Xiao Chi, I want my son to be emperor!” If she couldn’t marry him, then she would make him help their son ascend the throne. She would become empress dowager, the most exalted woman beneath the heavens. Then no one would dare bully her again!