采薇采薇

When Shen Huai returned victorious from the great war, the Emperor, inspired by the emperors in books, intended to reclaim military power through a cup of wine.

However, unlike those tales, what he handed Shen Huai was not wine but my corpse, shrouded in white cloth.

My younger sister, the current Empress, looked down at him from her lofty position.

“Prince Rui, I heard that you and your wife were childhood sweethearts, a deeply loving couple. What a pity that your wife, so ill-fated, passed away during her visit to the palace to see me. Now, His Majesty and I have decided to bestow upon you ten beauties and a thousand taels of gold to console you in your grief over her loss. How does that sound?”

Everyone waited for him to tremble with fear and gratefully accept the grace.

But they did not know that Shen Huai had never been a loyal minister or a virtuous general from the beginning. Everything he did was for me.

Yet, what they made him see upon his return was my lifeless body.