"A lone smoke rises high in the desert, and the sun sets round over the long river."
"The desert sand is like snow, the moon in Yanshan is like a hook"
"When I left, the willows were swaying; now I come back, it is raining and snowing."
Li Shushu lifted a corner of the carriage curtain, looked at the scenery outside the window, and frantically typed out the poems he had learned in his mind, regardless of whether they were appropriate to the occasion or not.
She was Princess Zhaohe, who was sent by the Dayu Kingdom to marry into the Ashile Kingdom. Before she set off, she knew the journey would be long, but she certainly didn't expect it to be so far.
When she set out from Shangjing of Dayu Kingdom, it was still late spring with willows swaying in the wind, but it was already autumn when she arrived in the desert.
In the desert, which is already sparsely covered with yellow sand, only patches of poplar forests can be vaguely seen at the distant border.
The leaves of the Populus euphratica forest have turned from green to yellow. In the vast desert, under the blue sky, the endless Gobi Desert displays unique scenery, becoming a special landscape.
The scenery of the desert seemed quite novel at first, but after looking at it for a long time, it seemed almost the same everywhere, with nothing new to offer. Li Shushu began to lose interest in it, so she lowered the curtains and stroked Xiaoti, who was now sleeping peacefully on her lap. Her thoughts began to wander...
Xiaoti is a pure white cat with blue eyes. Li Shushu himself doesn't remember its breed or origin. He only knows that Xiaoti has been following him since he was reborn.
This is not her first time to come to the northwestern desert.
Once upon a time, she was a native of the desert. However, eight years ago, her parents died and her entire clan was wiped out. She was forced to leave here and was sold several times. Finally, she became a dancer who was trained as a key person in Fengming Pavilion, the most high-end brothel in the capital of Dayu Kingdom.
Once, she was unwilling to accept the fate's tricks and disobeyed the discipline of the mothers in the pavilion. She suffered torture and humiliation in the arduous training of skills and repeated escapes and beatings. Finally, she died of illness at the age of sixteen.
Before her death, she still had many unfulfilled wishes. When she thought of those sorrows, those grievances, and those hateful people, she felt that her life was really absurd, and she could not close her eyes in death.
Fortunately, she was reborn when she was thirteen years old.
After being reborn, she seemed to have suddenly become enlightened.
Why did fate treat her like this? She was the apple of her parents' eyes and the pampered girl raised by the whole clan until she was eight years old. It was not her or her family and clan members who did the bad things. Why did she suffer torture and die in the end while those bad guys continued to get away with it?
No, she doesn't.
Since God gave her a chance to start over, she decided that in this life, she would never live as miserably as in her previous life, nor die without accomplishing anything.
"My destiny is in my own hands," she secretly encouraged herself in her heart.
So, all the mothers in the pavilion suddenly discovered that after the age of thirteen, Li Shushu, after fainting from another beating and corporal punishment, seemed to have suddenly become a different person when she woke up again.
She no longer cried, made a fuss, resisted or ran away. Instead, she became very well-behaved and motivated. She always carried out the training tasks assigned by her mothers very seriously, completing them in excess or even twice as much.
Not only that, she also became quite obedient and sweet-talking to the mothers in charge, but her eyes seemed different. Sometimes they looked simple and innocent, and sometimes they were unfathomable, as if there was a fog hidden in them that no one could see through.
However, the mothers were very pleased with her words and on the surface, they treated her like their own daughter.
In this way, Li Shushu's life would be much better in the future.
Just like that, through day after day of training at Fengming Pavilion, Li Shushu grew up to be sixteen years old and finally ushered in a major turning point in her life.
Li Shushu had heard about this turning point in her previous life, but unfortunately she failed to seize it at that time.
This time of rebirth is different. She has already planned to seize this opportunity.
…
The former Central Plains overlord, the Dayu Kingdom, and the newly rising grassland overlord, the Ashile Kingdom, have been fighting for years.
In a new war between the two countries, Dayu Kingdom was defeated by Ashile Kingdom. Not only did it have to cede cities and pay compensation for land, it also had to send Princess Zhaoyang to marry.
However, this emperor was inactive in government affairs, but he attached great importance to his children. It was impossible for him to send his own daughter to such a remote place in Mobei to suffer.
Therefore, the royal family sent people to secretly and urgently screen high-quality girls among the people, especially those who looked somewhat similar to Princess Zhaoyang, and brought them into the palace for selection.
After going through layers of screening, the final one was chosen to replace the real Princess Showa and go to Ashile to marry.
Li Shushu was already extremely beautiful, and she was treated as the future top courtesan in Fengming Pavilion and had been carefully trained for many years. Naturally, she was proficient in everything from music, chess, calligraphy and painting.
Even in that aspect, she was influenced by it and knew much more than the average ignorant girl.
Although she had made an agreement with the Pavilion Master of Fengming Pavilion at the beginning of her rebirth that she would make Fengming Pavilion rich, there was a condition: the Pavilion Master could not force her to be deflowered in advance unless she was willing...
Fortunately, the head of Fengming Pavilion agreed, and now she is sixteen years old and still a virgin.
This kind of situation is rare in a place like Fengming Pavilion. It can only be said that Li Shushu still has some capital and ability.
It is also thanks to her persistence.
Otherwise, no matter how despicable the royal family was, they would never arrange for a non-virgin girl to be married off. If Ashile found out, there would probably be another war.
Li Shushu was extremely talented, pure and innocent, and happened to be similar to Princess Zhaoyang in several ways, so she won the position of substitute bride relatively smoothly.
The royal family gave Fengming Pavilion ten thousand gold coins as her redemption fee and hush money.
In the palace, Li Shushu received intensive training for two months on palace rules and etiquette, the princess's preferences and habits, upbringing, etc.
Two months later, Li Shushu, wearing the same clothes as the princess, looked and acted like a real princess.
On the eve of his departure, Emperor Dayu summoned Li Shushu to a private meeting, gave her some instructions, and finally asked her, "Do you have any last wishes in Dayu?"
Li Shushu feigned innocence and tilted her head to think for a moment, "My only regret is that I wasn't able to burn down Fengming Pavilion."
Although her life is different now, she has not forgotten the humiliation she suffered in this pavilion in her previous life.
This place has harmed too many young girls. After being reborn, she once secretly swore in her heart that if possible, she would burn this place down.
The emperor nodded: "I promise you."
The next day was the day we agreed to depart.
A carriage and a team of guards took Li Shushu to the marriage destination in a light and simple manner.
When passing Fengming Pavilion, the road was congested and crowded. From a distance, Li Shushu heard a lot of crying and shouting. She frowned slightly and lifted a corner of the curtain to check, but saw that Fengming Pavilion was full of smoke and was in a raging fire.
Li Shushu suddenly felt secretly happy.
She curled the corners of her lips: Emperor Dayu did a great job on this matter...
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