“Lady Ya, I currently have a lot of issues to settle. Will there be more trouble for me once I listen to your story?”


  Ji Ru Ya bit her lovely, brightly coloured lips. Her touching appearance expressed traces of melancholy.

  “Lady Mu, please don’t fret about this. I don’t particularly have anything I need your help with. I just wish to have a listener. Of course, if Lady Mu is in power in the future, perhaps you can give me a hand. I would be extremely grateful for that. However, if this makes things difficult for Lady Mu, you can completely forget what I’ve said today. I won’t pressure Lady Mu into doing anything for me.”


  Her gaze was resolute as her beautiful eyes stared fixedly at the young girl before her.

  “Alright, I will listen to Lady Ya’s story.” Mu Ru Yue spread her hands and continued, “But if this matter proves to be troublesome, I will pretend I have never heard it.”


  ‘What kind of stories will a girl from the palace have? It should be about romantic relationships. Ji Ru Ya is at the prime of her youth, so having adoration is understandable.’


  Ji Ru Ya bitterly chuckled as her memories surged like a tide…


  “I wasn’t born in an aristocratic family, but from a small family clan. Even though the status of this family clan wasn’t high, I still had my father’s love and mother’s affections. I also had a cousin that stayed in my house. Both sides of the family had engaged my cousin and I since we were young. Following that, when my cousin’s family had fallen, my parents didn’t turn their backs on him. Instead, they treated him as their biological child.

  “But because of a medicinal plant, it led to the downfall of the family.”


  Tightly clenching her fists and with hatred flashing past Ji Ru Ya’s eyes, she continued, “When I was sixteen, it was only two months before I would marry my cousin. My father coincidentally obtained a thousand-year-old medicinal plant when he’d gone out on business. It was seen by Mu Qing, who was passing by. He didn’t care to unhesitatingly annihilate my family, just for that thousand-year-old medicinal plant! That day will forever be branded in my memory. Blood stained half the sky. My parents fell under the hands of the enemy after protecting my cousin and I! When my cousin and I escaped the house, we were separated from one another since…


  “I hated it! There hasn’t been a single moment that I don’t think about killing my enemies to avenge the death of my parents! For vengeance, I didn’t care about wasting my youth to participate in the commoner’s draft to enter the palace nor to give up on my engagement with my cousin. The palace is as deep as the sea. Perhaps I will be trapped in the palace my entire life, but for the sake of vengeance, I have neither complaints not regrets!

  “It’s been five years. Haha! Five years have passed since that day. I have had repeated nightmares every night in these five years. My enemy is right before my eyes, yet I am incapable of exacting my vengeance. Moreover, no matter how much that dog of an Emperor dotes on me, he definitely wouldn’t kill Mu Qing for me.”


  ‘Ah! It’s been five years. Who knows how miserably I have lived in these past five years…’


  She dreamed of her parents dying, along with the other 136 members of the Ya family. They appeared every single night, covered in blood before her. Their heart-wrenching shrieks viciously strangled her heart to the point where she couldn’t bear the thought of not using the blood of her enemy to appease those departed souls.

  Initially, she had a blissful family. Yet her family’s downfall was all because of a single medicinal plant. If that tragedy hadn’t occurred, then perhaps she would have been wedded with her cousin and had adorable kids.

  “I greatly detest that dog of an Emperor, but I still have to smile at him. I know what I’m doing will let my cousin down, but I will bear with it for my vengeance. The only thing I can do for my cousin is protect my chastity. I won’t let anyone else touch my body, excluding my cousin.”


  Ji Ru Ya covered her face with her hands, tears seeping through the gaps of her fingers. “But I don’t even want to seek revenge anymore. What am I supposed to do now? I really don’t want to continue exacting my revenge…”