When the Bright Moon Shines on Zhaohe - Chapter 1

Lately, I had been fawning over my imperial brother so he would let me leave the palace and establish my own household once I turned eighteen.

Apparently I’d fawned a little too hard. I made someone jealous.

That day, I had just arrived at Weiyang Palace when I *happened* to run into Noble Consort Wan delivering refreshments. Smiling sweetly, she generously handed me one of her two boxes of cakes.

Something felt wrong, so I secretly switched the boxes. Who could have guessed she’d put something in the cakes meant for my brother too? A great deal of it, in fact.

Honestly. Those two really knew how to have fun.

The drug hit me at midnight. It was an exquisite kind of torture.

My remote Shaohua Residence housed only me and my young maid, Chunxi. There wasn’t a single male guard in sight. I had no choice but to send Chunxi to Weiyang Palace for help.

“Tell His Majesty I ate the cakes Noble Consort Wan gave him, and they’ve made me sick. If there’s no antidote, have him send someone to help me as soon as possible. Preferably someone handsome, with broad shoulders, a narrow waist, and a body to die for. Bring back a young, strong one, all right? I… I can’t hold on much longer…”

Chunxi listened with a blank look, then seemed to have a revelation and ran off. Relieved, I rolled my eyes back and passed out completely.

Later, a voice woke me. It wasn’t Chunxi. It was a rather pleasant, deep male voice droning on at my ear.

“Hey, Little Ninth Pei, what’s wrong with you? Faking it again? …Hello? Zhaohe? Zhaohe?”

He was so noisy. I raised my eyelids to glare at him, but everything swam in a haze. All I could make out was the tempting Adam’s apple right in front of me, and a pair of cool, thin lips that looked eminently kissable.

Something in my head snapped. I lunged at him and kissed him by force. With tongue, even.

He pried my face away. “Pei Zhaohe! Do you have a death wish?”

By then I was in tears from holding back. “Zhaohe doesn’t want to die. Zhaohe only wants you. Is that all right, Brother?”

His eyes darkened. For an instant, he looked as though he might let me die on the spot—or swallow me whole. A shiver ran down my spine. Then his cool lips caught mine and bit them, almost in punishment.

“…Fine. Pei Zhaohe, as long as you’re willing to take responsibility.”

A burning palm stroked my spine. The rich scent of ambergris filled my nose. Through a night of dizzying rise and fall, a pair of shimmering, alluring eyes seemed to keep appearing before mine. They looked so deeply in love.

I lay useless in bed for two days. Whoever had come to save me had taken his job far too seriously.

When Chunxi helped me bathe, she took one look at the marks all over me and began grumbling. “Who on earth did His Majesty send? This is outrageous…”

I draped myself over the rim of the tub, licked my lips, and thought back. Hmm. Actually, it hadn’t been bad. He’d been excellent in every respect. But for some reason I could no longer remember his face. Almost as if someone had made me forget it on purpose.

“Chunxi, you didn’t see who came that night either?”

“No. His Majesty only let me wait outside the hall. It was dark, and I was far away. I didn’t see anyone.”

Well, fine. Forget it. Whoever he was, I’d soon be able to leave the palace. The endless drama of the imperial harem had nothing to do with me.

This was the world of an old school palace intrigue novel. The male lead, Pei Ye, had become emperor at a young age. Dashing and amorous, he seemed both full of affection and incapable of it. Each of the three thousand beauties in his harem had her own story. Every one of them was a heroine.

I, meanwhile, was only Pei Ye’s youngest sister: Pei Zhaohe, the Ninth Princess. Unfavored, with no scenes to speak of. A pure NPC.

The original princess had been born of an affair between an imperial consort and a guard. When the truth came out at age eight, she was drowned in the lotus pond. Then I arrived in her body.

Pei Ye, still the crown prince at the time, remembered some of the affection they’d shared as children and saved my life. After that, I was sent back to Shaohua Residence and left there to fend for myself.

That was fine by me. It let me stay clear of the complicated main cast. Over the years, Chunxi and I made a business of pilfering things from under their noses. One day a palace porcelain vase, the next a jade *ruyi*. We’d haul our loot out of the palace to pawn it, then use the money to rent a restaurant on the main street. After that, the profits rolled in.

Once my eighteenth birthday passed and Pei Ye granted me permission to set up my own household outside the palace, the world would be mine to roam. I would live as freely as I pleased.