1 (Chapter one.)

Have you heard the emperor is going to make a new concubine? The maid's chatted. It was no surprise that their empress was not favored and that she had been sent to the cold palace the moment the 7th prince succeeded the throne. They couldn't help but feel pity for the Empress who did everything to make the 7th prince the throne when he was just a prince back then.

I have heard that the concubine the emperor is marrying a week later is the empress's cousin. Said the maid with freckles and hair tied into a bun. Ever since the empress went in the cold palace no one have heard from her since then. She was a taboo in the palace which was meant to be forgotten forever.

Zhi Ruo looked into the mirror of her small room which had spider's everywhere. Her once beautiful sparkling eyes were now replaced by tired and shaggy one's. Her beauty which could cause war no longer existed. She was no longer a cheerful and bright girl but a forgotten empress.

There was no maid to serve her, the only time the maid would come would be to give her food. Never once did she try to talk to any of them because as soon as they came they left and she would only be faced with their shadows. At first when she had just arrived, she didn't know how to do a lot of things, she wasn't used to doing her own things by herself but overtime, she learned to get by day by day.

Zhi Ruo hated who she had become for Yao Ming. She had done everything for him. When she heard that he liked music, she forced herself day and night to learn it but never once did she get a chance to play it for him because he had never bothered coming to visit her. She had always wanted to be a martial artist but for him she gave her dreams up and instead became his personal war strategist.

She could still remember on the day of their wedding night. She waited for him the entire night, she nervously sat there and waited but he didn't show up the entire night. In fact, Yao Ming slept with a palace maid that night and totally forgotten all about Zhi Ruo.

She never once blamed him, maybe it was just a mistake. She convinced herself to believe this lie. Although deep down she knew he despised her. She knew she was just a tool for him that could be discarded when not needed. But never once did she say anything, she wanted to believe he still loved her but how long could she believe that? Maybe she just doesn't deserve love.