The nights in Ye City in mid-August already carried quite a chill. The moon was half full, its clear radiance like frost, and the magnificent buildings of Ye Palace lay in silence. Most of the consorts and palace maids who had escaped two days earlier had been escorted back. Now they faced one another as prisoners of Chu, their futures uncertain, sorrowful and forlorn-
Princess Qinghe Murong Qinchen returned silently to her Eternal Longevity Hall beneath the cold moonlight. Behind her followed a Rouge Warrior named Sanu'er, whom her younger brother Murong Chong had given her. The maids and eunuchs originally serving Eternal Longevity Hall had all fled when they saw disaster approaching. Although they had now returned, Murong Qinchen no longer wanted their service-
The conversation she had just overheard between her mother and imperial elder brother had chilled Murong Qinchen to her very core. Was this still the mother who doted on her? Was this still the brother who cherished her? And her uncle Kezuhun Yi, too-to save their own lives, these closest blood relations wanted to give her to someone as hideous and vile as Huan Xi as a concubine. A princess married to secure peace-but was this a marriage for peace? They were simply giving her away like some precious treasure or ornamental plaything!
Princess Qinghe had enjoyed wealth and privilege since childhood. Incomparably beautiful, fond of horses, archery, and riding, she was proud yet endearingly innocent, and deeply loved by her imperial father and mother. Of course, after Phoenix was born, her mother loved him more, but Murong Qinchen was not jealous, for she too loved her younger brother Phoenix-
Forthright and proud by nature, Murong Qinchen had never suffered any grievance before the age of twelve. Whatever she wanted, she always obtained. But two