Chapter 1 (1/2)

Chapter One

Yan Shi Ning’s peach blossom tree in life was pitiful.

She lived past eighteen years and had yet to see her peach blossom tree blossomed even once.

She wasn’t a bad match, she was sane and beautiful. But she didn’t know why she didn’t even have one suitor. It was an insane situation.

Her father was the prime minister, Yan Jing. It was a pity she wasn’t her father’s golden daughter.

Yan Jing was a poor scholar, he struggled to study for ten years. During that trialling period, Yan Shi Ning’s mother Dung Thi supported him. Yan Jing and Dung Thi had a loving relationship. Unexpectedly after he entered the palace to take the imperial examination, he caught Princess Kang Hua’s attention.

Yan Jing faced a difficult dilemma. On one side he loved Dung Thi and on the other side was his high ambition. His final decision was he wanted both and married Princess Kang Hua.

He thought he would live an ideal life. But on his wedding night with Princess Kang Hua, Dung Thi packed her belongings and returned to her family’s country home. Dung Thi never returned to the imperial city even though she gave birth to Yan Shi Ning in the country.

After Yan Shi Ning’s birth, half of Yan Jing’s heart was in the imperial city and the other half was with Dung Thi. Occasionally he visited his parents and Dung Thi in the country. He missed Dung Thi and wanted to visit more often but Princess Kang Hua was a powerful force and didn’t allow him to visit them often.

More than ten years past by quickly. Dung Thi worked hard to earn a living and died of pneumonia. When Yan Jing found out Dung Thi died, he cried continuously. Then he brought Yan Shi Ning to the imperial city. That year Yan Shi Ning was only sixteen years old.

Usually young ladies at the age of sixteen were the target of many matchmakers. But Yan Shi Ning’s family background wasn’t ideal. Even though she was the prime minister’s daughter, she didn’t have high hopes for an ideal husband. Prominent men wanted to marry someone who was most compatible with them to elevate their status. In the prime minister’s manor behind Yan Shi Ning was his golden daughter. The golden daughter’s mother was a princess and the princess was also the empress’ blood sister.