The grand corridors of the Eastern Palace buzzed with early activity, but an underlying tension followed Li Mei. A palace maid from the Queen's quarters arrived at her chambers shortly after dawn. Her eyes darted with curiosity as she exchanged hushed words with Li Mei's own maid, confirming that the Prince had not requested bathing water—a clear sign their marriage had not been consummated.
Later, as tradition dictated, the Prince and Li Mei went to offer morning tea to the Queen. Lady Anya, the Crown Prince's first wife, was also there. Li Mei remembered her as his childhood friend, a kind soul who had once saved him from drowning. To protect her, the King arranged their marriage, a union of mutual respect and companionship. However, she knew his feelings for her had always been platonic, never igniting the deep passion he would later discover with Li Mei.
The air in the Queen's grand hall was thick with unspoken judgment. As soon as the tea ceremony ended, the Queen's voice, sharp and laced with displeasure, cut through the silence. "Li Mei, why did you not perform your duties well last night?" she demanded, her tone accusatory.
Li Mei met her gaze with calm deference. "Your Majesty," she replied, her voice soft, "I was quite tired after the journey and the many wedding festivities." She chose her words carefully, aiming for polite exhaustion instead of defiant rejection.
The Queen's lips curled into a sarcastic smile. "Tired? I thought women from the Li family never tired. It is well known that no one can fight for a man's heart with a Li girl and win. So, playing hard to get—is that one of the tricks you use now?" Her words were a public humiliation, delivered with practiced precision.
Before Li Mei could respond, the Prince intervened, his voice firm and laced with an unexpected anger. "Mother, please watch your words!" He turned slightly toward Li Mei, a flash of concern in his eyes. She knew what he was thinking: Li Mei has never been shouted at or humiliated before; she must be feeling bad. She is spoiled and pampered. A surge of protectiveness rose within him. He turned back to the Queen. "It was I who asked Li Mei to rest early. If you want to blame and scold anyone, then please blame me!"
Li Mei was utterly shocked. Why was he covering for her? she wondered, her mind reeling. In her past life, this scene had played out very differently. The Queen was always at odds with the Prince because of his incessant favoritism towards Li Mei.
As they walked back to their palace, they passed the residence of Princess Wang Xiu, a princess from a neighboring kingdom who had fallen deeply in love with Prince Lin. She had begged her father to arrange their marriage to strengthen the alliance between their countries.
Li Mei remembered how Lady Anya, Princess Wang Xiu, and the final concubine, Chen Yan, had all entered the palace after her in her past life. In her naivety, she had even helped them. The Queen had convinced her to allow other consorts, as the powerful Chen family wanted to place one of their daughters in the palace. Prince Lin was pressured by his parents, who feared offending the Chens.
However, Prince Lin had been determined not to hurt her. The Queen, seeing his unwavering stance, had resorted to begging Li Mei to convince the Prince to agree to the marriage. Seeing the genuine sadness in his mother's eyes, Li Mei had tearfully persuaded him. Reluctantly, in that past life, he had agreed. His defiant words from that time echoed in her mind: "If being a Crown Prince means hurting my wife, then I do not want to be one!"
By then, in her past life, Li Mei hadn't been afraid of him falling in love with another wife. The other consorts had been with them for months, and the Prince had still not favored them; his heart was still firmly in her arms. This made her grow careless. Her naive confidence blossomed into a dangerous complacency, and soon, doom followed.
The memory flooded her with a bitter understanding. His loyalty and passion had been his strength, but also her ultimate undoing. This Prince, even now, was just as stubbornly devoted. She had pushed him away, expecting anger, and instead, found a protective shield. This was going to be far more complicated than she had anticipated. The path to avoiding his favor was not as simple as a direct rejection.
A New Plan
Back in her own palace, the shock of the Queen's hostility and the Prince's fierce defense settled over Li Mei. She slumped onto a cushion, her maid, Ling, hovering nearby with anxious eyes. He defended me, she thought, replaying the scene. Even after my blatant refusal last night. This was both a revelation and a new, more complicated problem.
It was later that day when Ling, bustling about the chambers, overheard a hushed conversation from the adjacent courtyard. It was the Crown Prince speaking to his head eunuch. "She is... quite something," the Prince murmured, a note of amusement mixed with a sigh in his voice. "My mother was quite upset this morning, but what can one expect? Li Mei has been pampered since birth, a favored child who knows nothing of harsh words. Her refusal last night and her behavior this morning... it's merely her spoiled nature showing. We must be patient with her, teach her gently. She is a treasure, untamed, but a treasure nonetheless."
Ling's eyes widened, her heart pounding with the secret she had just stumbled upon. When she relayed the conversation to Li Mei, a cold dread washed over her. So that's it. All her efforts to appear difficult were being completely misinterpreted. He didn't see her defiance as a rejection; he saw it as an extension of her pampered upbringing, a charming flaw he was prepared to indulge and eventually tame. He was already weaving her perceived flaws into the very fabric of his admiration, seeing her as an 'Empress' in waiting.
A new, more insidious plan began to form in Li Mei's mind: a subtle dance of avoidance and apparent heedlessness. If he saw her as spoiled, she would weaponize it. She would be just enough of a nuisance without being truly offensive, a distraction without being captivating. She would be the favored pet that wasn't worth the trouble of fiercely protecting.
Over the next two months, she meticulously put her plan into action. She continued to act slightly oblivious to strict court etiquette, "forgetting" minor courtesies and offering simple, almost childish apologies. Instead of throwing herself into managing her palace or cultivating accomplishments, she appeared easily bored, complaining of aching fingers when presented with embroidery and feigning a headache at the thought of poetry. When he sent her lavish gifts, she would thank him politely but not with effusive delight, even murmuring within earshot of a passing eunuch that she might use the silk to line her pet bird's cage. When he visited, she would maintain a detached demeanor, keeping conversation light and focusing on trivial matters to prevent that electrifying connection from deepening into the profound love that had been their doom.
Her efforts, however, had the opposite effect of what she intended. The Queen's patience wore thin, and she began to openly muse about the necessity of a sister-wife for the Crown Prince. "Perhaps," the Queen once stated to her ladies-in-waiting, "the Prince needs a companion who truly understands her duties." The Prince's affection, however, remained deep. He indulged her every whimsical excuse and every slight breach of etiquette.
What Li Mei did not know was that she was not the only one fighting a battle against the past. The Crown Prince Lin did not have his memories, but the profound love for her and the trauma of her death were etched into his very soul. He was not guided by logic or conscious recollection, but by an unshakeable, primal instinct to protect her from a threat he could not name.
Driven by an unknown agony, he had agents investigate her family, not out of suspicion of a hidden lover, but in a desperate attempt to find the source of the pain that haunted his very being. He was searching for answers to a betrayal he felt but couldn't place.
His agents, skilled in uncovering even the most guarded secrets, soon returned with their findings. But what they presented was not a tale of a hidden lover, but something far more ancient and profound that sent a chill down the Prince's spine.
The reports detailed the Li family's secluded estate, the rigorous training of the daughters, and, most crucially, the secret ritual performed upon their coming of age. The agents had managed to glean fragments of the ritual's purpose, piecing together a terrifying truth: the Li family's legendary favor was due to a mystical bond forged during this ritual. This bond ensured the husband's unwavering devotion, but it came with a terrible caveat. It bound the Li daughter irrevocably to her first intimate partner, and if that bond was ever perceived as broken by the husband, or if the wife was abandoned due to perceived unfaithfulness, the curse of collective suffering would be unleashed upon the entire generation of Li daughters.
The Prince's mind reeled as he read. His subconscious feelings of love, protection, and deep-seated trauma finally made sense. And then he saw flashes: Li Mei's "yes" in his past life, her supposed betrayal, had not been a simple act of infidelity. It had been her desperate attempt to sever a bond she believed was destroying her. And his subsequent decision to send her to the Cold Palace, however merciful he thought it was, had been the very act of "abandonment" that triggered the curse on her sisters.
He had been so consumed by his love that he had inadvertently become the instrument of her family's ruin and his own. His "patience" with her current avoidance was not just indulgence—it was his primal instinct telling him to wait, that this time, he would not make the mistake that had cost them everything.