Prologue

Huachen country, Yongsheng year two, spring.

While the emperor was out of the palace on an inspection among the people, the Empress took advantage to have an affair with another man in the viewing tower. The Emperor was turned into a cuckold, the whole palace thundered.

Upstairs in the viewing tower’s bedroom, the sounds of an enthralled female voice delicately panting mixed with a male’s rough and heavy gasps, carried from the big dragon and phoenix carved bed. Messy clothes were tossed before the bed.

“Bang!” The bedroom door was kicked open, and a cold handsome man walked in.

Reflected in his eyes was the sight of two bodies tangled together. Seeing this, even if Jun Qian Che could normally control himself very well, he was still unable to conceal his shock and indignation this time.

The man on top of the empress saw the situation, picked up the clothes from the ground, and jumped out of the window to escape. His speed was astonishingly quick, not letting people see his appearance.

The guards pursued immediately.

Shocked, the empress immediately ran out of bed, knelt in front of Jun Qian Che, and holding the hem of his clothes, looked up at him. The stunning face, that could cause the downfall of a nation, was flushed red. The beautiful eyes were sluggish, bright and stirring. The body was only covered by undergarments, the hair was disheveled.

As such a scene fell into Jun Qian Che’s eyes, how could he suppress his anger.

This same empress, that had kept on proclaiming her love for him, actually did such a shameless thing with another man in broad daylight.

His tightly clenched fists made cracking sounds.

“Your Majesty, listen to my explanation.” The empress pleaded.

Jun Qian Che crouched down, looking at her. One hand clamped around her neck. He was furious: “Slut, you always go around rampant, rude and unreasonable, jealous, not even close to the appearance of a country’s mother. We have been indulging you, yet you did such a shameful thing today. Truly wretched.”

The strength of his hand unconsciously increased.

The empress found it difficult to breathe, unable to make a sound. She felt like she was dying.

Her maid, Ban Xiang, knelt on the ground, pleading on behalf of her master: “Your Majesty, please spare the Empress!”

Jun Qian Che didn’t let go, the strength in his hand continued to increase. Watching the empress’ complexion turn redder, watching her unable to breathe, looking at her pained expression, he was very clear, she would soon lose her life. After her death, he could still use this matter to place the guilt on Duke Zhen, and deal a fatal blow on the Mo family.

But when the empress was about to die, Jun Qian Che suddenly shoved her away and got up to leave. Walking out of the bedroom, he coldly ordered: “Whoever dares to say a thing about today, kill without pardon.”

Everyone promptly knelt on the floor in fear.

The empress immediately rushed out to chase after him: “Your Majesty, listen to my explanation-“

“Empress.” She was blocked in front of the door by someone dressed in white, pure like a fairy.

The empress saw who stopped her, and cursed in anger: “Yang Shihan, you slut, you seduced the emperor, driving a wedge between me and him. I’ll destroy your face today, see whether you can still confuse the emperor afterwards.” The empress grabbed the white clothed woman’s hair, while her other hand reached for the woman’s face.

“Empress, don’t-“

The two women were struggling upstairs.

In a blink of an eye, the two wrestling females suddenly fell from the ten meter high viewing tower.

Jun Qian Che, who had already gotten out of the tower, heard the screams of the palace ladies and turned around. Jumping up, he caught the rapidly falling white clothed woman.

But the empress plunged to the ground, looked towards Jun Qian Che, and smiled with a touch of despair. Her heart thoroughly dead, she slowly closed her eyes.

“Empress-” Ban Xiang ran down, and fell to the empress’ side, weeping bitterly.

Notes: I’ll be substituting a lot of terms with simple personal pronouns. I’ll use ‘We, Us’ for the emperor. Third sister-in-law, second elder cousin from the father’s line, etc, all such things will be personal pronouns as well… Ah, my soul is crying. Sorry for butchering you, Chinese familial relations, orz.

Sometimes I use empress, and sometimes Empress. The capitalized version is a substitute for empress niang niang, when people are calling her. I won’t bother explaining all the painful language butchering I’ll be doing in the future. Just keep in mind there’s a horrible loss of information going on. A whole lot of nuance and the politeness aspect will also be lost. But at least it will be easy to read.

I’ve started on a new novel, heh. I’m translating as I read, so there’s my incentive… The synopsis somehow drew me in (I’m extremely petty and love revenge themes). I’ll be switching between the two novels whenever I need a break from one.

The tower is really just a building with more than one floor. It’s called a louand I had no better translation. Storied building sounds too heavy. Here’s a photo as an example.