Volume One, Chapter One: Beauty, the Cause of Calamity

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"Isn't that fallen princess about to die?"
"She won't make it through the night. Tomorrow we'll be able to collect our reward from General Qin."
"Second Brother, the famed beauty of Nanning—just gone like that. What a pity..."
"Tsk, tsk. Truly a shame."
"Since she's still breathing, why don't we have a taste before she's gone?"
"She still has a maid with her..."
"We'll take them both!"
"Heh heh..."

In the midst of swirling confusion, Ming Shu faintly heard voices, followed by a piercing scream at her side:
"What are you doing? Get away!"
"Exactly—what we want to do, heh..."

With great effort, Ming Shu forced her eyes open. The doubling shadows gradually sharpened into focus.
Two men in military garb were dragging a woman dressed in rags.
What was this?
Just yesterday, Ming Shu had been holed up in the fortune-telling shop with her master. How had she gone from the modern world to ancient times after a single nap?
And now, violence!

One man slapped the woman hard, several times. "Behave! Second Brother, I'll take the maid, you take the beautiful princess."
"Deal!"

The man, leering, loosened his belt, knees planted on either side of Ming Shu. "Oh, you're awake? Don't be scared, little princess. Big brother here will let you enjoy a woman's pleasures before you die!"

A foul stench assaulted her senses as the man pressed down, tearing at her clothes.
Damn it!
Ming Shu, who had trained in martial arts for years with her master, instinctively tried to kick the disgusting man.
But her body was weak and limp, and the man felt impossibly heavy. She simply couldn't move him.

Riiip—
A chill swept across her chest, followed by the man's hot, ragged breath on her bare skin.
Furious, Ming Shu grabbed the man's most vulnerable spot, squeezing with all her remaining strength.
With a strangled scream, the man rolled his eyes back and collapsed unconscious, his massive frame pinning Ming Shu beneath.
She couldn't breathe, face flushed red from lack of air.

Hearing the commotion, the other man adjusted his pants and came over. "Second Brother, what's going on?"
Panic gripped Ming Shu.
If he made a move, she had no strength left to fight back.
Her hand searched the bed, finding only the hard boards—and something cold... the dagger at the man's waist!

The man leaned down, his bleary eyes boring into the suffocating Ming Shu. "Second Brother, don't crush her to death. Didn't you just have a woman the other day, how—"
As he spoke, he started to push the man off Ming Shu.
In that split second, as he came closest, a flash of steel—Ming Shu drove the dagger straight into his heart.

He stared in disbelief at the blade protruding from his chest.
"Wretched bitch..."
He reached for his own dagger, but his clothes were loose and it was no longer at his side.
"I'll kill you..."
His hands reached for Ming Shu's throat, but in the next instant he toppled face-first to the floor.

Gasping for breath, Ming Shu lay on the bed.
A feng shui master's knowledge of human anatomy and pressure points was no less than a coroner's.
Her knife had found its mark perfectly.

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If her body hadn't been so weak, the dagger would have sunk deeper, leaving him no chance for last words.
After a long moment, the woman on the floor pulled on her clothes and rushed over. "Princess, you're awake..."
Ming Shu stared, dazed, at the tear-stained, swollen face before her as a torrent of unfamiliar memories flooded her mind.
She had entered a melodramatic novel!
The heroine was also named Ming Shu, once the most honored Princess Fanyin of Nanning.
Now her country was lost, the emperor and empress both dead.
The remaining royal family had been taken to Dongsheng's capital, awaiting the decree of Emperor Wenxuan.
Princess Fanyin's tragic fate was about to unfold.
What a... catastrophic beginning!

Ming Shu had no time for shock or sentiment.
According to the novel, the male lead—the crown prince of Dongsheng—would rescue the heroine at the last moment.
The crown prince would be here soon!
She must avoid any entanglement with him!

"Muxi," Ming Shu called to her maid, "Put on the clothes that man took off!"
The maid, though trembling, did not hesitate and quickly obeyed her mistress.
Ming Shu, barely able to support herself, glanced at the shivering Muxi and decided to do it herself.
"Help me move him to the bed."
She pressed the dagger into the man's hand, guiding it to stab into the heart of "Second Brother" on the bed.
She'd staged a murder-suicide scene between the two men.
Crude, perhaps, but there was no time for anything better.
Muxi let out a muffled cry, quickly stifling herself.

"We must leave at once and find my eldest sister and the others."
With bloodied hands, Ming Shu gripped Muxi's shoulder, her gaze firm. "Don't be afraid."
Fear and confusion lingered in Muxi's eyes, but she had promised the late empress to protect the princess, and she would not break her word.
"Allow me to carry you."
Knowing Muxi possessed unusual strength, Ming Shu climbed onto her back without hesitation.
They had barely left the farmhouse when the crown prince arrived with his men, rushing in.
Ming Shu quickly signaled for Muxi to hide behind a large tree, pointing toward the mountain. "Let's take the shortcut."
Muxi looked anxiously at the pale moonlight. "We've never taken the mountain path. It's dark—I fear we'll get lost."
"I'll guide us."
Ming Shu surveyed the area by moonlight, calculated quickly, and said, "Up the mountain, then head east."
Muxi hesitated, then gritted her teeth and carried her directionally-challenged princess up the mountain.
Looking back, Ming Shu saw torches flaring in the courtyard and felt a slight relief.
In the novel, after rescuing the gravely wounded Princess Fanyin, the crown prince was overwhelmed with concern and no longer suppressed his feelings, keeping her close by his side.
The naive, cheerful Princess Fanyin, to protect her family, accepted a sham imperial marriage and became the prince's consort.
Thinking of the imminent marriage decree, Ming Shu felt a headache coming on.
Escape was impossible.
She was a modern feng shui master, skilled in her craft but ill-equipped for palace intrigue.
After all, the crown princess Qin Nan was a formidable opponent!
Even now, when the prince's feelings for Princess Fanyin were still hidden, Qin Nan had those two lecherous men drug her food, sending her to her doom.
If the prince fell hopelessly in love, wouldn't Qin Nan go mad?
In the chill of late autumn night, Ming Shu shivered violently several times.

*

Muxi proved reliable, successfully bringing the isolated Ming Shu back to camp.

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Ming Shu wrapped her head in a rag and huddled in a corner like a shadow, trying to attract as little attention as possible.
Her body was frail to the point of needing to be fed by Muxi, yet she could not spare a thought for her battered state.
Tomorrow was the day of the imperial marriage decree.
She replayed the melodramatic plot of the novel again and again.
She managed to come up with a barely acceptable choice for the marriage: Emperor Wenxuan himself.
To save her own life, and the royal line of Nanning, she could only cling to the strongest pillar.
Could the crown prince outmatch the emperor?
Wenxuan only had two years left to live, but Ming Shu was a feng shui master—her sect possessed secret arts to prolong life.
If she could keep the emperor alive, the women of the harem, out of respect for the emperor, might have to restrain themselves, and their threat would be much diminished.
So that was her choice!
She spent a day and night in anxious suspense, entered the capital with the others, and was taken to a residence to bathe and change.
For the first time, she saw Princess Fanyin's face in the mirror.
Only one phrase came to mind: a beauty to bring down a kingdom.
Even sickly and dressed in tatters, the pale face was still so breathtakingly beautiful it was impossible to look away.
No wonder the crown prince was willing to give up supreme power for her.
No wonder Crown Princess Qin Nan was driven mad with jealousy, desperate to destroy her.
Ming Shu began to hesitate about choosing Emperor Wenxuan.
If even she, a woman, was powerless before such beauty, the emperor—being a man—what if he became a second crown prince?
What if the women of the harem became the next Qin Nan?
Should she... destroy this face?
Ming Shu gripped her hairpin, but could not bring herself to do it.
Gritting her teeth, she broke the feng shui master's rule against divining her own fate and cast a hexagram.
Thunder from a clear sky—the most inauspicious sign.
The omen read:
A bird misses its chance and falls into the cage,
Though it struggles, it cannot soar;
For now, best to keep to one's place,
To reach too high is certain ruin.

Ming Shu was speechless: if both emperor and prince were off limits, who could she choose?
"Princess, it's time. We must enter the palace now."
Ming Shu had no choice but to rise, gathering her fortune-telling coins, when she noticed something odd about their position.
This anomaly... was a way out.
The way out was... southwest.

*

Ming Shu hid half her face against Muxi's shoulder, covering the rest with her thick black hair, and entered the palace with the others.
Kneeling in the Purple Hall, she wished she could shrink into a shadow.
Silently, she prayed: Perhaps, because of what happened the other day, the story had changed and Emperor Wenxuan would not grant the marriage after all...
"Where is Princess Fanyin?"
A stern voice shattered her hopes.
Ming Shu could only struggle to her feet, head bowed, and slowly step forward before kneeling. "I am here, Your Majesty."
"Raise your head."
Ming Shu silently cursed the emperor for being a meddlesome old man, but could only look up, resigned.
As expected, a wave of murmurs rippled through the court.
From her right, the crown prince's gaze burned like fire.
Even Emperor Wenxuan seemed momentarily stunned.
Ming Shu felt as if she were attending her own funeral.