Lian Hua stood before Wang Zifei with her head held high. Her long, always neatly styled hair was now a mess. Her face was pale, her lips dry, and her eyes puffy. The thin white clothes she wore were useless in warding off the cold, a stark contrast to the soft fur coat and the finest silk she always wore.
However, Lian Hua is now starting to realize that all of that is not her. From the beginning, all the luxuries she has received are not her.
Staring into the eyes of the man she had always considered her lifelong partner, Lian Hua had to laugh bitterly at Wang Zifei's lack of emotion. There, she was once again struck by the reality: the prince himself wasn't hers, and he had never liked her from the start.
Lian Hua felt like she had returned to the first time they had met. She hid behind a tree from the palace maids who were always following her, playing pranks on them, and laughing as they frantically searched for her. She just wanted to see Prince Wang Zifei, her fiancé, but these people kept getting in her way.
She ran to the residence where the envoy from the Zhanshi Kingdom was staying, and there she saw a tall young man in a black robe gazing out into the distance at the lake. The hem of his robe and his hair fluttered in the wind. From the side, his eyes seemed to stare into the distance, his brow furrowed, but no expression was visible. Then, suddenly, a faint smile appeared on his otherwise calm face.
Lian Hua froze, her chest heaving, a strange feeling immediately engulfing her entire body. She touched her chest, wondering what that feeling was.
However, the smile immediately disappeared as Lian Hua approached, replaced by a face that was so cold, along with eyes that looked at her indifferently.
Now, five years had passed, and those eyes still stared at her with the same gaze. In fact, they seemed even colder than before.
"You must be happy." Lian Hua said, a mocking smile plastered on her pale face. "You've finally gotten rid of a woman like me. I knew from the start how much you disliked this engagement with me." Lian Hua bit her lower lip, holding back the tears that threatened to fall. "Hah, congratulations, that servant girl turned out to be a princess. You can marry her now." Her fake laughter then stopped.
"But at least you're not like the others, you never pretended to like me. At least, in my sixteen years of life, you're the most genuine of all." Lian Hua raised her head, looking up at the cloudy sky. This was the last time she would see the sky of Yishu Capital like this.
"I will not apologize for what I have done to you. I have no regrets at all. Maybe this is the last time we meet, but I want you to always remember me." Lian Hua showed all her feelings clearly from her eyes, she looked deeply at Wang Zifei. "I also want your life to be uneasy. I hope you never feel happy in your life." Lian Hua paid her last respects to Wang Zifei before she turned around, leaving her past, both her life as a princess and her first love to Prince Wang Zifei whom she had admired for a long time.
...
Lian Hua and the other prisoners walked weakly. They had already completed two days of their two-month journey to the Borders. The older men would constantly complain, and quite a few of them had fainted, but the guards seemed unconcerned. They would stop for a few moments, but it wasn't enough to alleviate the exhaustion and fatigue that gripped them.
Lian Hua stared at the dark bowl of flavorless white porridge she had been consuming for the past few days. She felt like she was going to vomit if she continued eating it, but she knew now wasn't the time to be stubborn. If she gave up now, her haters would cheer. Like swallowing a bitter pill, she forced the porridge down her stomach.
"Let go of me! I want to see my daughter!"
"Aisss... do you want me to punish you?!" A commotion stopped her meal. A few steps ahead, a woman was being forcibly pulled away by a guard, and another was preparing with a whip to punish her.
Mrs. Shen's condition had worsened since her daughter abandoned her, turned her back on her, and allowed herself to be exiled to the Borderlands. She frequently made noise, screaming that she wanted to bury her husband, whose body had been dumped in the forest for wild animals as punishment for his crimes. She also constantly cried out for her daughter, Ying-er.
"That woman is up to her old tricks again."
"Yes, maybe that woman will die before she reaches the Borders." Whispers from other exiled prisoners reached her ears. Not all prisoners would be exiled to the Borders. Only herself and the Shen family, the rest were exiled to an island to the north.
Lian Hua didn't care at all, the woman wasn't her mother, and vice versa, the woman also never considered her as a daughter, so she closed her eyes and ears tightly before forcing the food back down.
But her activities were interrupted again when she heard a child's voice, screaming at the guard who was beating Mrs. Shen. "Sir, please don't beat my mother! Please stop!" It was a boy, wearing the same plain white clothes as them, which meant he was also exiled.
What made Lian Hua stop pretending to be indifferent was when the boy kept begging, asking for forgiveness for his mother, even though he was also being whipped by the guard. The boy was Madam Shen's son, meaning he was her younger brother.
As the youngest daughter, she doesn't have any younger siblings. Lian Hua only has six older brothers who are always there to help, and now, she just discovered that she has a younger brother all along.
She remembered, she always said she wanted to have a younger brother to her father - His Majesty the King.
Even though Lian Hua was a cruel, hard-hearted, and selfish woman, she could never bear to see a child being beaten like that. She stood up from her seat and limped towards the center of the commotion.
"You! If you keep hitting him, you might kill him." Lian Hua said, speaking loudly and sharply. A person couldn't change in a day or two, and habits couldn't be changed quickly. She had been living as a princess all this time, and from the way she walked and talked, everything had the temperament of a princess.
The guard turned from the mother and daughter pair to glare at Lian Hua. "You speak as if you are still a princess." The guard laughed at Lian Hua as he looked at Lian Hua with a condescending look.
"God is always just. In the end, you got your just reward." He continued.
"At least I was once the one you adored, while you, you only beat others. I heard that the guard in charge of escorting prisoners to the Borders was the one who received the punishment. Seeing how you treat others, I wouldn't be surprised if you end up being the one exiled to the Borders." Lian Hua replied, not losing to the guard.
Lian Hua's words struck a chord with the guard. As the most beloved daughter, she could do whatever she wanted, including sitting next to her father when she discussed important matters of state. Not only that, but she knew many officials and knew what they were talking about, the hottest news, problems, affairs, and so on.
The guard readied the whip he had already gripped tightly, his eyes red with anger. Lian Hua shielded herself, bracing herself for the pain of the whipping. The woman waited, but another guard's voice interrupted the whipping.
"I'm sure your punishment will be much harsher if you cause trouble. We'll continue on our way." Said another guard, stopping the violence. Lian Hua subconsciously breathed a sigh of relief after holding her breath. She'd never even been whipped, let alone injured even slightly, and it was certain to be excruciatingly painful.
In the end, they continued their journey towards the Borders. Considering it was late autumn, the air they had to traverse was incredibly cold. Lian Hua hugged herself, holding back her shivering body. "You, are you Princess Lian Hua?" Lian Hua, who was about to stand up, turned around and met the boy's gaze who was still beside her.
Her younger brother. They had never spoken to each other before this.
.....