After receiving the imperial decree, Lian Wan'er did not come out of her room all day.
The servants whispered that she must be so overwhelmed by joy that she fainted from excitement.Her parents thought she was quietly preparing herself for royal life.Even her sister Meiyu pitied her, thinking Wan'er must be heartbroken over Prince Jin.
…The truth?
Wan'er was outside.In the back garden.Plowing.
With the angriest face in all of Zhang Nation.
"Me? An Empress?! What kind of cosmic joke is this?" she muttered between gritted teeth, digging into the dirt like she was burying her regrets.
Her hoe struck the ground with deadly precision.
"I was trying to AVOID the stupid harem politics! Now I'm supposed to lead one?!"
CRACK!
The hoe snapped clean in half.
Wan'er stared at the broken handle in disbelief.
"…Wow. Even farming tools can't handle my frustration anymore."
She threw it aside with a dramatic sigh and trudged back to her room, looking like the world's most exhausted cabbage.
"Daughter, why are you so dirty?"
Wan'er froze mid-step.
Her father, Duke Lian, was standing in the hallway, looking at her from head to toe with that judgmental "I raised a weird child" expression again.
Wan'er pouted, lips forming a perfect へ shape, and glared at him with pure annoyance.
The Duke blinked.
"…Eh? Why is she making that ugly face?"
For a second, he genuinely doubted his daughter's noble upbringing. Then he sighed and followed her into the room.
"Daughter," he started, adjusting his sleeves importantly,"your marriage will be in a week, so please refrain from going out too much. Look at you! Sunburned, dirty, and—heavens—your hands are rough from farming!"
He pulled out a small jade bottle and handed it to her."Here, this is a high-grade beauty pill. It enhances spiritual energy and, more importantly, whitens skin. Your complexion will be flawless for the wedding."
Wan'er blinked slowly at the pill.
Internally: Who cares about being white? I just want my vegetables to survive summer!
Externally:"…Uhmm." Nods stiffly.
The Duke smiled, satisfied, and left humming, clearly proud of his "obedient daughter."
Wan'er facepalmed.'Stupid old man. I should've been born into a normal peasant family. At least cabbages don't talk about skincare.'
From that day on, Wan'er's movement within the Duke mansion was strictly monitored.
Every time she tried to sneak to her garden—there was a maid trailing her.Every time she touched a hoe—a guard confiscated it.
Her father, the former general, wasn't taking any chances.After all, his eldest daughter was about to marry the Emperor of Zhang.
The night before the wedding—
Wan'er sat by her window, hugging a pillow.The moonlight spilled across her face, highlighting the faint nervousness in her usually blank eyes.
"Tomorrow… is the day," she murmured.
She was nervous.Terrified, even.In her past life, she never even had a boyfriend—and now, she was going to marry an emperor she had never met.
"Well," she muttered, half-laughing, half-crying,"to think I, the triple-PhD genius, would end up as a perverted farming maniac with marriage anxiety."
She flopped backward onto her bed, sighing deeply.
"…I just hope he's not old and wrinkly with white hair and a long beard…"
Her eyes slowly closed as sleep claimed her.
And somewhere in the palace, a tall, black-haired emperor sneezed for no reason.