Chapter 1: Pain, Heart Piercing Pain

The clouds rumbled as thunder and lightning criss-crossed, sawtooth strokes of lightning collided in the skies without pause and burst forth into glaring white. The ice-cold, desolate Cold Palace, in the contrast by flashes of light, was several times more prominently eerie.

“Let me out! Zhong er! My Zhong er¹!” Yao Mo Xin crazily pounded on the vermilion painted wooden doors of the Cold Palace, postnatal blood dying her unadorned garment. After an entire night, her delicate body, unable to support itself any longer, fell in a pile onto the floor, her ten fingers streaked down the wooden door as she slumped, leaving ten long bloody lines.

(1) 儿 – “er” means boy but can when added on to a name is a way of endearment and is gender neutral

“What crime have I committed? What crime! Ye Hong Yi, for you to treat me this way!” Yao Mo Xin cried out with grief, tears flooded their way out of her eyes, wetting her lapel, as the cold penetrated her heart.

Just last night, she was still the high and mighty Empress of the great Chu nation, the labor pains were still vivid in her mind and that pleasant infant boy was still in her arms. She was happy to the point she didn’t know what worry was. But happiness is so brief, she didn’t even have time to react before being dragged off the phoenix couch by a group of imperial bodyguards that didn’t distinguish between right and wrong, and thrown into this dark, damp Cold Palace. Up to this moment, Yao Mo Xin still felt like this was a dream.

Iron chains clanked as the Palace doors opened, a gale violently swept up dead leaves and carried them in. Yao Mo Xin’s body abruptly trembled as she subconsciously curled up her body and closed her eyes.

“Jie jie²!” An anxious voice unexpectedly cried. When Yao Mo Xin opened her eyes, she saw Li gui fei appear in front of her, hugging an infant to her chest.

(2) 姐姐 – “jie jie” Older sister, can be used to address people not blood related

“Su Luan…… Zhong er! Hurry and hand Zhong er to me!” Yao Mo Xin ecstatically stretched her hands towards the child in Li gui fei’s³ bosom, but a piece of paper separated the two.

(3) 贵妃 – “gui fei” noble consort, 2 ranks down from empress, refer to wikipage

“Sign it!” A voice so cold it induced shivers reverberated loudly in the quiet Cold Palace. Yao Mo Xin hastily looked up, gazing at a face with a pair of strict flickering black eyes. At this moment, Yao Su Luan had already retreated to the side while hugging the infant, there was a strange spark in her eyes which flashed, then immediately disappeared.

“Hong Yi…… this…… what is this?” Yao Mo Xin looked vacantly at the man wearing the dragon robe embroidered with golden thread patterns before her, her heart suddenly turning cold. They had been husband and wife seven years and had always treated each other as honored guests, lifting the tray to eyebrow level⁴. She had never seen this dark and cold gaze before.

(4) Two sayings mean pretty much the same thing, they treated each other with mutual respect in the marriage.

“See for yourself!” Ye Hong Yi didn’t try to conceal the disgust in his eyes as he coldly scoffed. Yao Mo Xin held back the tears in her eyes, her ten fingers trembled as she picked up the paper.

“This qie,⁵ Yao Mo Xin’s private morals are harmful, they will cause disturbances to the family. To Prince Su she harbored improper intentions and the pearl fetus……” This was clearly a testimony, slandering her of having an affair, how could she sign it. One by one, teardrops sorrowfully descended, and intensified, until the tears fell like rain.

(5) 妾 – “qie” way for concubines and consorts to refer to themselves, concubine; this consort

“Everything is pure and white between this qie and Prince Su , why is Your Majesty wrongly accusing this qie?” Yao Mo Xin’s hand that was holding the paper shook uncontrollably. She looked disbelievingly at the man in front of her eye whom she had loved for seven years. With traces of tears on her face, the expression was lovely*.

*The expression was truly lovely was probably Ye Hong Yi enjoying her despair.

“As if you can even match up to the words pure and white! That night at the Water Ripple Pavilion, what great deed you two committed!” Ye Hong Yi towered above. His voice was like a cold blade, falling from above Yao Mo Xin’s head.

“Your Majesty minds that incident? But that night, Mo Xin only went to beg Prince Su to send troops after receiving Your Majesty’s secret orders, in order to save your majesty from calamity. Prince Su’s condition was to have Mo Xin accompany him and have a long talk with him, seated side by side. We did not do anything sinful……’Pah—’ Not waiting for Yao Mo Xin to finish speaking, the sound of the wind suddenly screamed next to her ear, the corner of Yao Mo Xin’s mouth dripped blood as five impressive blood-colored finger marks emerged on her face.

“Shut up! You’re saying that zhen⁶ is a useless thing, who sent his own woman submissively onto another man’s bed for the sake of begging for his life?” This was the thorn in Ye Hong Yi’s heart, every time it was mentioned, it caused him to lose face. At present, Ye Hong Yi gave a low growl and violently dragged Yao Mo Xin’s wrist with such ferocious strength that Yao Mo Xin felt as if she could hear her own bone dislocating. Pain, bore into her heart and pierced her bones, like an insane wave of onslaught.

(6) 朕 – “zhen” way for the king to refer to himself

“Ah—” Yao Mo Xin was in extreme pain, her lips and teeth were chattering, from her forehead immediately seeped meticulous beads of sweat.

“I’ll say it once more, sign it!” Ye Hong Yi violently flung her hand and Yao Mo Xin’s body, like a wing-torned butterfly, fell heavily down in front of that piece of paper.

“This qie never did so, and will not drag Prince Su into this false accusation……” Yao Mo Xin’s face was deathly pale, her willow eyebrows were tightly creased, every word, every sentence, resounded with strength.

“If you didn’t have any improper relationships, why would he, based on these few words from you, choose to willingly send troops to save zhen? Could it be that it didn’t occur to him, that once zhen died, he would naturally ascend to the title of Emperor!!” Ye Hong Yi spat out these words while gritting his teeth.

“Seven years as husband and wife, how many storms have we struggled through together? The battlefield campaigns, the five dragons struggle⁷, the chaos of Yi Xi, could it be that you don’t have any trust in Mo Xin at all?” Yao Mo Xin looked up in distress, hoping to catch tender sentiments in Ye Hong Yi’s eyes, but what entered her sight was ice-cold, sinister black eyes.

(7) 五龙夺嫡 – “five dragons struggle” refers to a story, from my skimming, basically five people wanted the throne so the royal family had a large battle in Jiang Hu, yet all the sources of dispute resulted from a girl’s odd experiences.

义熙之乱 – “Yi Xi” I might be wrong but after searching it up, it seems to be a time period from 405-418

“Seven years as husband and wife, zhen has tolerated you enough! Sign it, and zhen will leave you an intact corpse!” Ye Hong Yi’s voice seemed like that of the underworld’s devil, resounding in Yao Mo Xin’s ears. Her heart shattered. So the man whom she had staked her life to protect had felt this wronged?

“Mo Xin’s death is not worthy of pity, but Su wang⁸ had overcome numerous obstacles to assist you in becoming emperor. For your sake he went into bloody battles and killing fields, how can you bear to use such despicable methods to frame him……” Before Yao Mo Xin could finish her words, she saw Ye Hong Yi lift his leg violently to give her a fierce kick towards her stomach.

(8) “wang” is a suffix for a male member of the imperial family. “wang ye” is an informal way of addressing a prince or a vassal king

“Pu—” The back of Yao Mo Xin’s head fiercely struck the ground, her stomach boiled and a stinging sensation bubbled up, her throat burned as blood violently spurted out.