Yin Lingxi sat in the seat with an expressionless face, just as she had always been taught, as her mother managed the royal court.
Even at the young age of 12, she clearly understood what was going on thanks to the Empress that gave birth to her.
The latest issue was the massive flood that destroyed the Eastern border of the empire, allowing the Demonic Beasts that lived within the massive river to travel inland and cause many problems for the mortals.
“My Empress, we really need to divert some funds to support the noble families near the border to deal with this.”
The scholar who suggested this course of action was a young man with some good left within him, a rare quality within these accursed halls that the young princess had known all her life.
And yet, the Empress, her mother, still held the same cold expression as she always had.
“And why should we? Do the nobles not have their own wealth that they can use to mitigate this issue? Better yet, why not have the Hao family sell that Qi-rich land that they recently ‘acquired’ from the merchant family that ‘unfortunately’ passed away last year thanks to an unknown ‘plague’?”
The scholar just looked confused at her mother’s words, but Yin Lingxi saw several members of the court start to shift uneasily, realizing that they, and by extension, the rest of the nobles, were the real targets of her mother’s words.
Yin Lingxi’s mother was the eldest child of the Yao family, the branch family of the Royal Line, and held extreme hatred for anything that had to do with nobility and royalty due to a past traumatic experience she had that she never spoke about to anyone. In fact, her hatred was so great that she took every opportunity to knock down the various noble and influential families of the empire, actively plotting their downfall and misfortune from the shadows.
The unfortunate thing was that her hatred even extended to her husband and her children, despite their devotion to her.
The only reason she even married the Emperor and had children with him was for the sake of securing her position as the ruler of the Empire.
It was not a coincidence that all of the Emperor’s lovers had suddenly disappeared or met unfortunate ends while the Emperor himself fell ill and had to frequently stay in bed to even have the strength to speak right after the Empress gave birth to the third prince, fulfilling the condition of giving the emperor three children as it was agreed upon by him and her younger sister, Yao Xingchen, in exchange for saving his life from the Yanfeng family during their childhood.
Everyone in the Empire’s upper nobility knew this truth, yet none dared to go against her out of terror.
If she was willing to be this ruthless to her own family, what was stopping her from dealing with them should they turn on her? And more importantly, if she managed to pull the Yao family as her backing to deal with them along with using the forces of the Royal Family as the current empress, what were they supposed to do?
As such, this kind of thing where she always sent jabs at the nobility and ruthlessly destroyed their power in the shadows had become the norm.
Just like it had become the norm for The Empress to scathingly scold her three children for even the most minor of mistakes that they made.
This was why, despite being only 12 years old, Yin Lingxi did not even dare to move from her spot unless ordered to by her mother.
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
Time suddenly flew by in front of the confused 12-year-old girl as she suddenly found herself in her mother’s courtyard where she was sitting beside her siblings, all of them receiving training from their mother on how a Royal is supposed to be.
As she listened to her mother speak with her usual stern face, she started to realize that all of this felt very familiar, like she had already gone through all of this, yet she could not understand why she was feeling like this.
Then, her mother’s words caught her attention.
“As a royal, you will never trust anyone, not even your siblings, but yourself. Anyone and everyone can turn against you when given enough incentive.”
“In this world, there is no such thing as true friendship, companionship, brotherhood, or sisterhood. Everyone is but a pawn to be used for your gain.”
Despite her young age, Yin Lingxi could not help but feel like there was something in her mother’s words that rubbed her the wrong way.
So, for the first time in her relatively short life, she raised a question, showing bravery beyond what even her brothers were willing to.
“But, mother, is everyone like that? Is everyone really only interested in our title?”
Immediately, she regretted her words as the sheer hatred in her mother’s eyes made the children cower in fear.
“Yes, my dear daughter. Most of the people in this world is only looking out for their personal interest.”
For a split second, Yin Lingxi saw the hatred in her eyes replaced with longing, love, and bitterness.
“Of course, there will always be some exceptions to those rules. If you are lucky, you will meet people who wish to associate with you not for personal gain, to get your wealth, beauty, or connections, but because they really care about you.”
Then, those emotions were quickly consumed by the hatred that returned with even more intensity than before.
“Unfortunately for you three, you are of royal birth, as such, that kind of luck is out of your reach. It would be prudent for you to only look at everyone else, including each other, as nothing more than competition or tools for your own use.”
Once again, the scenery shifted around Yin Lingxi as she suddenly found herself in front of a massive procession with her siblings and father.
The focus of the procession, of course, was none other than the Empress, or rather, the former Empress, as she had left the mortal world behind thanks to an unknown poison that killed her in her sleep.
As the procession carried on, Yin Lingxi heard faint sobs from near her mother’s body, making her look at a woman who looked strikingly similar to her mother.
The only difference was that their faces were slightly different and the fact that Yin Lingxi’s mother was not capable of cultivation while this woman was clearly a cultivator.
It took her young mind some time until she realized that she was looking at her Aunt, Yao Xingchen, who used to visit her and her siblings very often before a big fight between her and the Empress.
‘….k…p’
The little princess stiffened in surprise and fear as a faint, distorted, voice reached her ears, making her look around for the source, only to find nothing out of the ordinary.
‘Y…L..gxi,..ke..up!’
The eerie atmosphere of the ceremony combined with the voices that she was starting to hear creeped the girl out as she started to shiver in fear.
Once again, the surroundings started to change, this time, she was sitting in her room as her aunt sat in front of her with a brittle smile.
“So, am I to take this as confirmation that the princess has accepted my request?”
Yin Lingxi felt her smile stretch a little, becoming something genuine as she replied to her aunt.
“Of course I do! I would love to have Aunt Xingchen as my personal guard.”
And it was the truth. In the little time she spent in this accursed world, Yao Xingchen was one of the few people that Yin Lingxi knew who never looked at her as anything other than a relative, as family.
In truth, Yao Xingchen was more of a mother to Yin Lingxi than her own mother before she left the palace due to the fight.
‘Yin L….yo…in….i…sio….ke…up!’
Once again, the eerie voice returned making her chest tighten in fear and another emotion that she could not understand. However, the young princess dismissed the voices and concentrated more on talking with her Aunt.
This was one of the rare few occasions where she could genuinely express herself and she was not willing to ruin it because of some voice that she kept hearing.
The princess spent the entire day speaking with her aunt, unaware that the voice was trying to desperately reach her but failed to because of her fragile heart that refused to leave this comfort behind.
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