The sun filtered through the carved lattice windows of the Zhu Manor, scattering soft light across a silk-draped chamber heavy with scent and silence. A girl sat in front of an ornate bronze mirror, her pale fingers delicately applying blush to her paper-white cheeks and lips.
Zhu Yulian stared at her reflection.
Pink eyes. Ghostly skin. Hair like falling snow.
No matter how much rouge she dabbed, her face looked like a porcelain doll's — delicate, unearthly, wrong. She pressed harder, smearing color onto her mouth like blood.
Today was supposed to be the beginning of everything.
The day she'd be formally engaged to the man who had whispered promises into her ears beneath moonlit plum trees. The man who had smiled — rare and secret — only for her. The Emperor.
But then the summons had come.
And everything changed.
A single sentence from the Dowager Queen had shattered it all:
> "The engagement is annulled. The emperor shall marry Princess Huiren of the Northern Steppes."
No reason. No warning. Just like that, she had been discarded like a silken handkerchief stained with ink.
The Dowager Queen claimed it was for the empire.
The emperor... agreed.
Yulian's brush clattered onto the vanity. Her eyes burned, not from tears — but from betrayal. She tore off the crimson veil laid beside her — the same one she'd dreamed of wearing as Empress.
"Prepare the palanquin," she ordered her maid, her voice like frost. "I'm going to the palace."
---
The Grand Hall was still, its silence broken only by the echo of her embroidered shoes slamming against polished stone.
The Emperor looked up from behind a scroll. He sat with an effortless command, long black hair unbound around his shoulders, green eyes calm — too calm.
"Yulian," he said softly, as if nothing had happened.
She didn't bow.
"You promised." Her voice trembled. "You swore you'd make me your empress."
He stood, but she stepped back. "You told me I was irreplaceable. You said I was the one who understood you, the one you—"
"It's not that simple," he said, cutting her off.
Her throat tightened. "Then tell me. What changed?"
He hesitated.
And in that pause — she broke.
Tears spilled over pale lashes as her fingers clutched her chest. "I—I gave up everything. I waited for years. I let them call me cursed and strange and cold, but I waited because I believed you'd choose me!"
He looked down, unable to meet her gaze. "The empire needs peace. The Northern Steppes—"
She laughed — short, cracked, bitter. "So I'm a sacrifice for peace now? Just a ghost girl no one will miss?"
"Yulian…"
She shook her head. "Don't."
Then she ran — out of the hall, down the palace steps.
Her shoe caught on the edge of her robe.
She tumbled.
Pain bloomed as the stone steps scraped her back, arms, legs — and then everything went dark.
---
When she woke, everything felt like a dream wrapped in thorns.
Her body ached. The floor beneath her was cold marble. Somewhere nearby, two maids whispered by a latticed screen.
"I heard the wedding's begun already."
"Yes. The Emperor and Princess Huiren are a perfect match, they say."
"They say she came from the North with five thousand elite cavalry as her dowry."
"Five thousand?!"
"Her father, King Darugai, agreed to an alliance in exchange for the marriage. No more border raids. No more bloodshed."
Yulian sat up slowly.
So it was true.
Not only had he abandoned her — he was already marrying another.
And her own family — the Zhus — were present, smiling in the crowd. Smiling, while their daughter was cast aside.
She tore off the blood-stained silk blanket and stood.
She ran.
---
Her bare feet slapped against stone, then gravel, then mud. Blood trickled from her soles where sharp pebbles dug in, but she didn't stop.
She couldn't stop.
She burst into the palace gardens, pushing past startled guards and servants. The golden pavilion loomed ahead, its banners fluttering with the imperial sigil.
Laughter and music spilled from within.
She stopped just outside, hidden behind a flowering magnolia.
The emperor stood beside Princess Huiren.
Yulian stared.
Huiren was beautiful — tall and fierce-looking, with eyes the color of storm clouds and braids coiled like battle ropes. She wore an imperial phoenix crown and armor-gold gown.
But it wasn't her beauty that crushed Yulian.
It was the way he looked at her.
With softness.
With warmth.
With something that had once belonged to Yulian.
Her knees buckled.
She sank to the ground, clutching the branches of the tree to stay upright. Tears streamed down her face, but she made no sound.
She didn't belong here anymore.
She didn't belong anywhere.
---
The river behind the palace was quiet. Moonlight danced on its surface like shattered jade.
Yulian walked in until the water reached her knees.
Then her waist.
Then her chest.
She closed her eyes.
Maybe in the next life, she'd be born normal. Pretty. Loved.
Maybe—
Strong arms wrapped around her just as the current tugged at her feet.
"Foolish girl," a voice growled, dragging her out.
She coughed, gasping for air as her rescuer dropped her onto the grass.
A man with dark robes and fierce eyes looked down at her. His face was unfamiliar, his hands rough from battle. A scar ran across his jaw.
"Do you have a death wish?" he demanded.
She stared up at him, too shocked to speak.
He sighed. "Well, too bad. I just saved your miserable life."
She blinked. The stars above spun like a cruel joke.
"I didn't ask you to," she whispered.
He looked at her for a moment.
"No," he said. "But someone has to stop you from throwing it all away."