"Whoosh—!"
The sharp whistle of a signal flare nearly pierced her eardrums as it burst into a huge green spark above the capital.
Crouching on a tall tree next to the palace wall, Xie Yu looked up.
The rebels had begun another assault.
The maids below, holding lanterns and shouting "Third Princess," all stopped and looked up at the sky.
A deathly silence spread.
A young maid's voice trembled. "The Demon Ghost… are the Demon Ghost troops breaking into the palace…?"
"Watch your tongue!" the head palace woman scolded. "What are you panicking for? Her Majesty has already summoned twenty thousand imperial guards. She will personally suppress the rebels. No matter what kind of Demon Ghost their leader is, she's not leaving once she enters."
"What we must do now is find the Third Princess quickly so her Majesty can lead the army with peace of mind."
Up on the tree, Xie Yu held her breath, curling up tightly, not daring to move.
Because the missing Third Princess… was her.
An hour ago, she had still been a happy first-year police academy student in the 21st century, preparing for her physical exam the next day. Now, she had transmigrated into an ancient empire called Dayong, becoming the Third Princess who shared her name.
Worse, she arrived just in time to hear palace maids saying the rebels were already at the city gates. She was about to become the princess of a fallen nation.
Rumor said the rebel leader was a master strategist, almost ghostlike, ruthless and unpredictable—nicknamed Demon Ghost. Anyone who fell into her hands would beg for death.
After hearing that, Xie Yu immediately slipped into the imperial kitchen, stole a kitchen knife and some dry rations, wrapped everything in a bedsheet, and prepared to run.
Searching through the memories of her new body, she found that the original princess had lived in the cold palace as a child. Nearby was a hidden hole covered by weeds, leading to a dried-up river channel abandoned for over a decade. It connected straight outside the palace.
But before she could escape, palace servants discovered her disappearance. After reporting to the empress, the entire palace was mobilized to search for her.
Why would an unwanted princess cause such a huge reaction?
It was strange—far too strange. But Xie Yu knew one thing clearly: she absolutely did not want to be found.
If the rebels won, she would be executed as a member of the imperial family.
If the empress won, she would be trapped in the deep palace, bound by endless rules until the end of her life.
She would rather escape and become a nameless, free wanderer.
Heart pounding violently, Xie Yu forced herself to take several deep breaths.
Her fate rested on this moment. One wrong move, and she'd never recover.
Only after the maids calling "Third Princess" had gone far did she slip down the tree like a cat. Holding her breath, she dropped through the hole into the river channel.
A cloud of choking dust exploded inside the dim passageway.
"Cough, cough—!"
Covering her mouth, she moved forward carefully.
After walking far enough for her eyes to adjust, she broke into a sprint.
More than forty minutes later, she stood with her hands on her knees, panting heavily, staring at the exit—a two-and-a-half-meter-high opening with no footholds.
Outside came the chaos of footsteps, screaming civilians, crying children, marching hooves, the crackle of fire.
Her heart tightened. The rebels must have breached the city.
Which meant the battle was almost over. She needed to slip out while the chaos still masked her escape.
She stepped back, ran forward, jumped, grabbed the edge of the opening, her fingernails digging into the dirt as she pulled herself up.
Climbing out, she dusted off her clothes, ran into the main street, and merged into the fleeing crowd at the perfect moment.
The rebels had moved like ghosts, silently surrounding the city until tonight.
And tonight was the Lantern Festival. These people had simply gone out to have fun—solving riddles, eating snacks. An hour earlier, many hadn't even heard of the Demon Ghost army. Hearing the sudden news of an attack, they panicked and fled without thought.
Xie Yu leapt over an overturned sugar figurine stall. The syrup smelled delicious. She thought that once she left the city, she'd treat herself to one. The roasted chestnuts nearby also smelled good—she'd buy two and peel them slowly.
Touching her stomach, tightening her bundle, she suddenly heard a faint cry ahead.
"Mother!"
She stopped instinctively.
A four- or five-year-old girl stood in the middle of the road, looking around, clutching a moon-goddess sugar figurine. Her hair was thin and yellow.
Thud!
Predictably, she was knocked over by someone running by. She fell hard and burst into tears.
Xie Yu frowned. Was this kid separated from her family while fleeing?
"Sis… sister…"
People hurried past. Only Xie Yu had stopped. The little stump of a girl looked up at her, sobbing so hard she could barely breathe. "My name is Cao Zhenzhu. Have you seen my… my mother?"
Xie Yu shook her head.
The child's eyes filled with hope as she held out her sugar figurine. "Then… then can you take me to find my mother? I'll pay you with my candy."
Her eyes were round and dark like grapes. She clearly didn't want to part with the candy and held the stick in a death grip.
Xie Yu looked at the little hand, then at the towering city gate in the distance, hesitated, and finally picked the child up and set her by the roadside where it was safer. "Wait here for your mother."
This was a rebellion. She had to escape the city.
She ran.
After turning a few streets into a residential area, she spotted a skinny suspicious man climbing over a wall with a knife at his back.
Fortunately, someone was home. "Who's there?!"
A fight broke out immediately—clanging, crashing, pots and pans flying.
Xie Yu stopped breathing for a moment.
She had forgotten something important.
Back in police academy training, her instructor said that during chaos, thieves, robbers, and human traffickers—normally too afraid to show their faces—became the most active. They loved to prey on disorder.
She clicked her tongue sharply, turned around, and sprinted back to the child.
Without ceremony, she snatched the sugar figurine.
"Don't! Don't steal my candy!" Cao Zhenzhu's voice was hoarse from crying. She bared her teeth like a tiny puppy, then looked up. "…Sister?"
Xie Yu chomped off the moon goddess's entire head. "We agreed. The candy is payment."
With her other hand, she pulled the child up. "Come on. And don't throw up on me."
"Sister? Did you find my mom? What do you mean don't throw—"
Before the girl finished speaking, Xie Yu had already eaten the whole moon-goddess figurine, tossed the stick aside, dusted her hands, hoisted the child onto her shoulder, and took off running.
Bumped and jolted, the child wailed in the wind, her voice breaking apart.
"Sis— aah— sister— ah— aaah— aaahhh—!"
Xie Yu returned to the river tunnel entrance and untied her bundle, turning the bedsheet back into a long strip of cloth. She twisted it into a rope and set Zhenzhu down.
She lowered the pastries and water pouch back into the tunnel and told her, "Eat when you're hungry and drink when you're thirsty. Don't make a sound before sunrise. If I haven't come back by then, call for help."
She added, "If you don't behave, your mother won't want you anymore, understand?"
The tear streaks on Zhenzhu's cheeks hadn't dried yet. They glistened as she nodded hard. "Then where are you going, big sister?"
Xie Yu pulled the grass back over the entrance to hide their traces. Only then did she answer, "I'm going to steal candy figures from other kids."
There were far more children separated from their families on the streets than she had expected. In less than half an hour, she brought back four or five more. Every one of them had been wandering helplessly when she found them, either standing still in place waiting for their parents or running around like panicked birds.
Time was tight, and she didn't bother figuring out their exact ages. Anyone who looked small and underage got dragged back. Some were as young as Zhenzhu, only four or five, while some were twelve or thirteen, thin as sticks.
Once gathered together, they surrounded her, yelling "big sister" in a chaotic chorus so loud that Xie Yu's head hurt.
"Big sister! Big sister!" the chubbiest one shouted, jumping higher than the others. "My little sister is missing too! Big sister! I don't have a candy figure, but she does, and it's a dragon!"
"Wow..." All the kids actually quieted for a moment.
"Got it, got it." Xie Yu waved them off, then told the thin monkey-like kid she had forcibly dragged along, "I'll go look for her sister. You're older, so take care of the little ones."
The scrawny kid was clearly at the age of rebellion. She glared with full dissatisfaction. "I'm not a brat anymore. How old are you? Why should you boss me around?"
"I'm seventeen and eight months, and I'm a trainee constable. Why wouldn't I be allowed to boss you around."
As a police academy student and a college student, Xie Yu felt she had every right to manage a bunch of noisy children. Leaving that one retort behind, she set off to find the chubby kid's sister.
Tonight was chaos beyond imagination. As she searched, she dodged several squads of rebels with red cloth strips and guards with black strips. Without realizing it, she reached the largest commercial street of the capital, where bright light spilled everywhere.
The wide road was paved with neatly arranged dark blue stone slabs. Both sides were lined with dark red wooden buildings, their beige lanterns swaying in the late-spring chill.
But lanterns alone couldn't make the street this bright.
She turned her head and saw the burning capital laid bare before her.
Taoist temples, wine houses, and Buddhist halls were engulfed in flames. Orange fire surged into the sky, tinting half of the cold blue night in a fiery glow.
Crowds of fleeing civilians flowed like a massive brown tide, but in the middle of that tide stood a single motionless silhouette, slender and pale as moonlight.
The figure stood quietly, gazing at the burning Taoist temple in the distance, unmoving like a reed in the wind. Only the white hem of her dress and her hair strands fluttered and stretched in the chilly spring wind.
She was far too thin, the kind of thin that looked like illness.
Her side profile came into view, lips pale, long dark lashes casting shadows. Her features were delicate, yet her sickly complexion lent her an ethereal, almost immortal air.
She was beautiful, Xie Yu admitted.
Not only beautiful, but her clothing bore intricate patterns that marked her as a noblewoman raised in a wealthy household. She had the look of a quiet, spiritual young lady who would be showered with gifts upon returning to the capital, the type novels called the "untouchable flower of the aristocracy who inevitably becomes someone's doomed love interest."
Xie Yu stared for a moment, then lifted her foot to leave. But right then, the head of a warhorse and a blood-stained dao blade wrapped in red cloth appeared at the far end of the street.
Rebels.
She instinctively looked back at the "fairy-like girl" and found her standing there with serene indifference, untouched by panic.
Why wasn't she running? Did she not recognize the rebels?
Should she save her or not? That was the question.
Xie Yu hesitated for a few seconds, thinking that adults in ancient times were just as troublesome as the kids... but since she'd already saved so many tonight, one more adult wouldn't kill her.
So she gritted her teeth, rushed forward, and grabbed the girl's wrist.
The coldness of that wrist startled her, but she didn't have time to dwell on it. She lowered her voice. "Stay with me. I'll get you out."
The rebels were almost upon them. Xie Yu ran fast, barreling forward while repeatedly checking behind her. She feared the sickly beauty might struggle or slow her down, but to her surprise, the woman remained quiet and compliant.
Her expression was unreadable, but she clung to Xie Yu, stumbling along without protest.
Surprisingly obedient.
Xie Yu rushed into a narrow alleyway between two wine houses, dark and tight enough that only one person could pass sideways. She shoved the girl inside and slipped in after her, blocking the entrance.
Soon enough, the sound of hooves echoed nearby. Xie Yu held her breath as a squad of rebels rode past, armored and armed with gleaming blades.
Just as she relaxed, the leader suddenly turned her head. Her hawk-sharp eyes locked onto Xie Yu.
Cold sweat drenched Xie Yu's back in an instant.
After several tense seconds, the leader looked away.
Xie Yu exhaled slowly.
The alley was dark enough that even if the leader noticed them, she would probably assume they were ordinary civilians hiding.
Xie Yu turned back toward the girl while whispering an explanation.
"It's a civil war. The rebels want to take over later, so they won't target commoners on purpose. But aristocrats are extremely valuable to them, so they'll try to catch you."
"You look expensive. People like you are easy to recognize."
When she finished speaking, she realized the girl wasn't listening at all. She was staring at their hands. Xie Yu was still holding her wrist.
That wrist was so pale it made Xie Yu's own skin look tan, even though it wasn't. And it was so slender that Xie Yu's fingers seemed especially strong in comparison.
Their hands were pressed together, stark in contrast.
Xie Yu quickly pulled her hand away and hid it behind her back. She smiled lightly. "My name is Xie Yu. What's yours?"
The girl slowly lifted her gaze. Her eyes swept over Xie Yu's face before she finally answered.
"…My name is Shen Changyin."
—
T/N: In China, people use terms like "big sister" as polite or affectionate titles to show respect, age order, or closeness, even when they aren't actually family.
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