When night came, Yu Jian was leaning on the wall while resting on the bed. Rui sat opposite him with her arms around her knees.

"I'm sure you have a vague idea about my family situation," he started. Rui nodded and he continued, "when my Imperial Father was young and would sneak out of the palace a lot, he saved a girl in the streets from these men that wanted to sell her to the slave market. It was love at first sight. He assigned her to be his personal maid and as years passed, they grew even closer. Unfortunately, Imperial Father was already engaged to Imperial Mother. He could not marry this servant girl that he loved so deeply. Even so, they had an illegitimate child in secrecy. That child was me. Imperial Mother found out anyway and was greatly angered. With her powers, she had my mother removed from her sight and under Imperial Father's nose. She said that my mother was a whore and took advantage of the Emperor while he was drunk. Very few people know the real truth. The only thing my mother left behind was her jade flute."

Yu Jian blankly stared at the flickering candlelight. His dry chuckle brought a chill down Rui's back, "Isn't it funny, how even an Emperor could not protect his childhood lover with his heavenly powers? Pathetic."

Rui made her way to sit besides him and rested her head on his shoulder. He smiled gently down at her. "Doesn't matter now. Imperial Mother has what she wants: she's the Empress and her son is Crown Prince. But she still finds me as an eyesore. First Brother and I are quite close, despite the feud between our mothers. He always stood up for me and taught me almost everything. That's why I decided to leave Wu Jin. I don't want to fight for the throne."

"I'm sorry. . ." Rui whispered, "because of me, you had to return home and face the wrath of your imperial parents."

"Don't, Rui-er. If anything, I should be the one apologizing. You'll have to endure a lot of suffering. . ."

She shook her head and placed a soft kiss on his cheek, "I told you, I'll endure whatever they throw at me."

Though she said that, she wasn't really expecting something to be thrown at her literally. While she was washing uniforms of the palace maids, a bucket of dirty water was dumped on top of her head. Shocked, Rui stood up and the water dripped from her drenched dress. Her black hair stuck to her skin and she tried to wipe the water from her face with her already damp sleeves. When she could finally see clearly, she glared at the group of maids that were giggling.

"Serves you right, you witch!" One of the maids taunted. The others snickered and their smirks were hidden by their sleeves. "You think you can climb up the royal status and live a luxurious life? Dream on!"

Rui bit her inner cheeks and said nothing as she continued to stare down at them. The servant in the middle kicked the basket of freshly cleaned clothes onto a pile of dirt, "Do you only know how to stare? You don't believe that I won't dig them out for you? I would ruin that pretty face of yours, but I don't want to touch someone as filthy as you and dirty my own hands."

The girls sneered in her face and walked away after leaving her with a warning, "Listen up, you slut, finish washing these clothes and the ones from the Southern wing of the palace. We're going to take a couple days off, so you better get them done before we're back."

Once the sound of their footsteps were long gone in the distance, Rui flung her wet hair out of her face and blew an air of frustration. She kneed on the ground as she picked up each cloth and dumped it back into the basin of water. Gritting her teeth, she whispered to herself, "Endure. Endure. Endure."

The days only grew worse. YuJian and Rui were only allowed to see each other once a week, as the Emperor kept giving Yu Jian unnecessary assignments to keep him away from her. Thus, Yu Jian was unaware of the ongoing bullying that Rui faces. Everyday, the maids would come to taunt and frame her.

"My, you're still here?" the maid, Wen Shi, smirked with her pink lips as she played with her dangling hair pin. She belongs to the Southern palace and is assigned to be one of the Crown Princess' lower servants. As such, she holds more authority than most of the palace girls in the laundry department. "Did you hear what happened yesterday at the Seventh prince's manor? A servant was found in his bed with her clothes disheveled. I also heard that he's energetic. My, I almost forgot, you're his so-called wife, aren't you? My apologies."

The girls behind WenShi laughed as they continued to mock her. Rui kept her head and eyes focused on scrubbing the clothes, her once-jade hands already wrinkled from being soaked in the water for so long. She knew what they said wasn't true but it still hurts to hear and imagine such a scene.

WenShi humphed as she rolled her eyes. She had enough of this delicate-looking girl who suddenly became a "wangfei" and she felt like Rui used witchcraft to seduce the prince. Feeling irritated by the beautiful girl's lack of care, she yanked Rui's shoulder and made her fall backwards. Rui let out a quiet hiss and her dark, phoenix eyes flared with annoyance. Satisfied by the reaction, WenShi smiled in glee, "Oh dear, you need to be more careful next time."

Before Rui could retort, they had already thrown another pile of dirty sheets at her to clean, "Have these cleaned and dried. Bring them back to the Southern Palace by sundown."

Rui's eyebrows knitted and her lips turned downwards. How was she going to get them done before the sun sets? WenShi and her little group of rats smiled knowingly at her. They're obviously plotting to get her in trouble for not following orders.

She was not going to let a band of clowns get to her. After they left, Rui took the sheets and made it a priority to finish first.

"At least the gods are on my side," she thought as she shaded her squinting eyes from the blaring high sun, "it won't take long for these to dry."

As the candle burned with time, Rui took down the sheets from the hangers and folded them neatly before placing them in a basket. The movements reminded her of the time with Yu Jian. She remembered how she never had to do chores and hated touching dirty things. Yu Jian would scold her and make her work for her food. A soft smile found its way to her full lips.

It would take about half of an incense stick to walk to the Southern Palace from where she was now. She sighed as she looked at the written directions through the mazes, "I hope I don't get lost. . ."

Half an hour passed. She got lost.

Her shoulder sank low and she bit her red lips. Just as she thought it couldn't get any worse, she saw the same clowns——that always torture her——turn from a corner. Their eyes widened in surprise before a malicious intent glared from them. Rui glanced down at the pile of clean sheets before quickly looking back up at the gang. She had a bad feeling that they were plotting something.

"If it isn't the shameless girl who slept her way up the ladders," WenShi laughed obnoxiously, "I can't believe you still have the courage to show your face here."

"I'm just doing my job, unlike you guys who have so much free time to be roaming around the palace. If they were going to hire palace maids to stand around and look pretty, at least find some with decent faces." Rui shot back with a dry smile. The hinges on their jaws unhooked and the girls scoffed in disbelief.

WenShi scrunched her nose in anger while her face turned red and green, "Who do you think you are? You're just a filthy country bum that the prince picked up! Let me remind you how you can easily be replaced!"

The leader shot a glance at the girls behind her and two maids held Rui by the shoulder and forced her down on her knees. With a giant smirk on her face, her hand raised high in the air, "Let's see how pretty your face will be after I slap you for speaking so disrespectfully!"

Rui glared up and did not cower away from the incoming strike⎯ this silly slap from a simple palace maid is nothing. However, the blow never came. Within a blink of an eye, WenShi went from being in front of her acting high and mighty to being in a sorry-state on the floor. The nail-digging hands on her shoulders also loosened quickly.

Rui turned her head and to her surprise, it was a beautiful man in navy blue robes lightly laced with gold. His black hair was held up by a golden pin. The bridge of his nose stood tall and his phoenix eyes glared at WenShi with disapproval. In short, he was handsome and domineering. His eyes shifted to Rui and the scowl faded.

"Little Seven sister-in-law, are you okay?" The familiar charming voice chimed like a bell and she finally realized who was standing in front of her. Because of traditional etiquettes, she was not allowed to look directly at the royal family during the meeting.

Rui quickly straightened her back and saluted, "This lowly one greets the Crown Prince."

"Don't be so formal," he smiled as he guided her up with his hands, "Xin Rui, was it? How can a Wangfei let herself be bullied by mere servants?"

The maids stepped back in fear and bowed for mercy, "Your highness, this was a misunderstanding!"

"How can it be a misunderstanding? This prince saw the entire scene play out. Are you trying to say that this prince is delusional?" His voice boomed and the courtyard fell silent. Only the anxious beats of the birds' wings flapping away in a great escape could be heard in the distance. WenShi shook her head furiously, "No, no, this servant does not dare!"

Despite her crying plea, the Crown Prince ordered, "Someone, drag these servants out for punishment. Since they have the courage to slap a Wangfei, have them slapped 50 times each."

The guards behind the prince saluted before answering to his command. They dragged the wallowing girls away and Rui watched their tiny figures disappear into the distance.

"Are these for the Southern Palace?" the first prince nodded at the basket in her hands. Still taken back by what just happened, Rui slowly confirmed. Without a warning, he took the basket from her and tossed to one of his servants. "Bring those back. I am walking Qi-Wangfei back to her palace."

"But your highness, you shouldn't walk⎯" his personal guard stepped forward but quickly stopped when the Crown Prince lifted his hand silently.

"Come, Rui!" He smiled brilliantly at her. It was like a smile that reflected gold.

She can see why Yu Jian looks up to his brother now. He's righteous and his smile makes everyone feel at ease. Knowing that her love have someone like the first prince to rely on made her heart warm. Her red lips curled up gently and her bright eyes glowed with happiness. The prince was caught off-guard by her smile and even felt like his breath was taken away by her. There was something so innocent yet tempting about her eyes. Even though she was dressed in plain robes, her hair held loosely in place by a ribbon, and a little smear of dirt on her cheek, she still looked stunning.

His eyebrows knitted slightly and coughed into his fist as he pulled himself together. He thought silently, "Little Seven is really lucky."