Springtime at the Tang Manor

[Mutual Firsts, A Proud and Noble Prince vs. A Delicate 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 shook him to the core. He thought her pure and lovely.

But once he learned who she was, he returned to the northern borderlands.

Even so, in the still of night, he would always remember the innocent girl beside the flowerbed...

-

The first time Jiang Xintang saw Xiao Chi was at the banquet welcoming him home.

Her stepfather wanted to secure an official post, so he 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. 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."

The marks he had just left were still on Jiang Xintang's neck. She did not dare lift her head, and timidly called him big brother.

-

She lost her father young and followed her mother into the Duke's household, becoming the stepdaughter of the Duke's third branch. Her status was humble.

He, meanwhile, was the powerful Prince of Beiding, noble, calculating, and ruthless.

Jiang Xintang did not dare provoke him again.

But in the dead of night, he would repeatedly pull her forcibly into his arms, his embrace burning and intense.

He even said, "Bear me a son, Tangtang."

Later, she bore him a son and a daughter, but he raised her to the seat of the empress. Their children were registered under the new emperor's name, while he controlled the emperor and the entire court.

One day, after enduring endless torment, she clutched her son and seized his hand.

"Xiao Chi, I want my son to become emperor!"

If she could not marry him,

then she would make him put their son on the throne.

She would become the empress dowager.

She would become the most exalted woman under heaven.

Then no one would dare bully her again!