Starting with Intercepting and Marrying the Eldest Princess - Chapter 1

Chapter 1: “Hello, My Name is Xie Ning… No, Xie Jing…”

“Drip… drip… drip…”

The sound of dripping water near her ear became increasingly distinct. Xie Ning struggled several times before finally lifting her eyelids, which felt heavy as lead. Feeling slowly returned to her body: a parched throat, weak limbs, a splitting headache. She felt as though she had suffered a serious illness.

The blurry image in her vision gradually cleared.

Dark… damp…

Where was this?

Why were her hands and feet also bound?

Before she could think further, a series of unfamiliar memories suddenly flooded her mind.

Xie Ning looked stunned.

She… transmigrated?

She transmigrated after pulling an all-nighter and opening her eyes again?

And she had transmigrated into an unfamiliar dynasty.

From the memories, she knew this dynasty was named Xia, the Great Xia Dynasty.

The original owner of this body was also named Xie Ning. The original owner’s family were villagers in Shilijiao, ten miles outside Donghua City in the Xia Dynasty.

Late one night, the entire village of Shilijiao burst into flames. The sleeping parents and villagers couldn’t escape, but the original owner had happened to go into the city that day to buy some goods and, unable to return home in time, chose to stay in an inn in the city, thus escaping the disaster.

After burying her parents and villagers, the grief-stricken original owner decided to go to the capital to seek refuge with her older brother.

That’s right, the original owner had an older brother named Xie Jing.

Xie Jing was naturally gifted and intelligent from a young age. To support Xie Jing’s education, his parents spent all their savings to send him to school. However, in ancient times, raising a scholar was something an ordinary family could hardly afford.

Fortunately, the villagers of Shilijiao were very simple and pooled all the village’s resources to send Xie Jing to the county school.

Xie Jing lived up to their expectations. After going to the county school, he began to show his talent, studying diligently every day and earning the affection of his teacher.

It was assumed Xie Jing’s path was one step after another toward the Imperial Examination, but one day, Xie Jing suddenly returned home, saying he was going to study at the Guozijian (Imperial Academy).

The original owner’s parents were confused and didn’t know what the Guozijian was. Xie Jing explained that the Guozijian was the highest institution of learning in the Great Xia Dynasty, where only children of nobles and winners of the Imperial Examination could enter. He had participated in the official school selection and was recommended after ranking first in the local official school selection.

The original owner’s parents didn’t fully understand, but they knew their son had a limitless future, so they didn’t utter a word of objection.

Five years passed like this. Xie Jing seemed to have suddenly vanished, cutting off contact with his family. The original owner’s parents dared not visit Xie Jing in the capital, fearing it might affect his future.

This time, the original owner, desperate and with no other choice, had to take the travel permit issued by the local government to go seek refuge with Xie Jing.

After rushing for three months, she finally reached the gate of the capital.

But then she was suddenly struck over the head and passed out.

And so, Xie Ning arrived.

Xie Ning’s expression instantly became shocked and uncertain.

Who would strike the original owner and bind her here?

There could be many people.

The original owner traveled alone all the way to the capital, making her a target for many ill-intentioned people.

Thinking carefully, the original owner herself was quite good-looking. Could she have been targeted by slave traders?

The original owner and Xie Jing were siblings with similar appearances. She could have traveled disguised as a man, but the thought never occurred to her. She couldn’t be blamed; anyone who suddenly experienced the pain of losing both parents wouldn’t have the presence of mind to scrutinize such details.

Xie Ning frowned, imagining the fate of being trafficked in ancient times, and her expression immediately changed.

No… whether it was trafficking or not, she couldn’t sit and wait for death.

Xie Ning steadied her mind and surveyed her surroundings.

She was currently tied up inside a room. The sky was dark, and she couldn’t see anything outside the window. Occasionally, the call of a crow would sound. The room was filled with debris, like a place that hadn’t been inhabited for years. Near the pile of debris not far from her lay a sharp piece of metal.

Xie Ning’s eyes lit up. She arched her body like a caterpillar toward the pile of debris, rolled once, and used her hands tied behind her back to grab the metal piece. She started frantically sawing at the ropes. Her hands were cut by the metal piece in the process, but Xie Ning barely seemed to feel the pain, not pausing her movements for a second.

Faster! Even faster!

Fine beads of sweat were already beading on Xie Ning’s forehead.

“Clang!”

At that moment, the room door suddenly opened.

Xie Ning immediately stopped her hands and looked up, while cleverly hiding the metal piece in the gap of the rope with her flexible fingers.

A handsome, drunken man wearing red wedding clothes walked in with unsteady steps.

Xie Ning scrutinized the man’s appearance, feeling both familiar and strange. She quickly flipped through the memories in her mind and finally located the source of the familiarity.

Wasn’t this the original owner’s older brother, Xie Jing!

So, Xie Jing tied up the original owner?

Why?

Xie Ning froze, suddenly recalling the inexplicable fire that burned the original owner’s village, and a bad feeling surged in her heart.

“Brother!”

Xie Ning shouted, trying to stall Xie Jing while pulling out the metal piece to continue cutting the rope, seizing every second.

“That’s right, it’s me.” Xie Jing shook his dizzy head hard and looked at the panicked Xie Ning on the ground with extreme disgust.

“Why didn’t you die?”

As he spoke, Xie Jing walked around the surrounding clutter, striding forward to grab Xie Ning’s hair and drag her towards an empty space nearby.

“Brother! Ge! You can’t hurt me! It hurts, it hurts!” During the violent dragging, the metal piece even pierced her palm, making Xie Ning numb with pain, but she still clutched it tightly.

“Big brother, just let me go, and I’ll leave right now!”

“Big brother, judging by your clothes, today must be your wedding day. You can’t have blood on your wedding day!”

“Shut up!” Xie Jing suddenly lost control of his emotions and kicked Xie Ning, sending her flying.

“Sh*t!”

Xie Ning curled up on the ground, trembling with pain. A mouthful of blood rose to her throat, but she forced herself to swallow it down.

Xie Jing ignored her, again grabbing Xie Ning’s hair and roaring, “Why didn’t you die! Why did you dare to come looking for me!”

“Do you know what I sacrificed to get to where I am! Now that I’m about to pluck the fruit, you show up!”

“You’re going to ruin me! You want to ruin me!”

“You noticed today is my wedding day, so guess who the bride is?”

Without waiting for Xie Ning’s reply, Xie Jing screamed wildly, “It’s the Great Xia’s Eldest Princess, Pei Shujing!”

“She’s one of the most distinguished women in the world today!”

Looking at the ferocious Xie Jing and smelling the alcohol radiating from him, Xie Ning endured the nausea and bought herself time: “That’s wonderful! Sister is truly proud of you, big brother. It must have been hard for you to reach this point. Can you tell your sister about it?”

“Heh heh.” Xie Jing actually calmed down, releasing Xie Ning’s hair as if reminiscing.

“Her Highness is noble. Logically, her marriage should not be something commoners like us can dream of, but life is like a play, and things can change at any time.”

“Do you know the Xie family? Not our Xie family. I mean the Chenliu Xie clan, a famous noble family.”

Xie Ning of course knew what Xie Jing was referring to. There was a poem that read, “Once, the swallows of Wang and Xie’s halls flew into the homes of ordinary people.” The Xie in the poem referred to the Xie family. She didn’t expect the world to be different, yet she could still hear information that closely paralleled Chinese history.

“I got lucky. In Donghua City, I was unexpectedly noticed by the Xie family during an incident. The head of the Xie family wanted to adopt me as his son, on the condition that I follow them to the capital and then marry the Eldest Princess. The price, of course, was that I couldn’t serve in court.”

“I have admired Her Highness for many years. Naturally, I had to seize such a great opportunity! So what if I can’t be an official? As long as I become a Xie family descendant and the Imperial Consort, even the Three Dukes of the court will show me respect.”

“But to achieve all this, I had to sever all ties with the past. Do you understand?”

After spilling everything, Xie Jing felt an unprecedented sense of relief. Heaven knew how difficult it was to keep these things bottled up without anyone to brag to.

He felt he should even thank his dear little sister. If it weren’t for Xie Ning, he wouldn’t have been able to satisfy his self-indulgent vanity.

To repay his good sister, he decided to give Xie Ning a quick death. Once Xie Ning was gone, no one in the world could expose his identity.

Of course, there were still traces of his life at the county school in Donghua City, but after so many years, who would remember what a bookworm who only studied hard looked like?

Even if someone did remember, he believed the Xie family would handle it for him.

Xie Ning understood. It was just a story of a wolf in human skin. She had heard too many such stories, but when she thought of how the original owner’s family and the villagers had pooled all their resources to support Xie Jing’s education just so the village could produce a scholar, only to meet such an end, Xie Ning couldn’t help but sigh that the person in front of her was truly a beast.

Listening to the story was one thing, but having it happen right in front of her, and influenced by the original owner’s memories, Xie Ning truly couldn’t accept it.

“So, what you said about studying at the Guozijian was a lie.”

“So you lit a fire and burned everyone alive.”

“But you didn’t expect me to still be alive and come to the capital to find you.”

“So you panicked. You were afraid I would discover the truth, afraid I would expose your background, afraid you wouldn’t get the Eldest Princess you coveted for so long. So you chose to tie up your own sister here and nip the problem in the bud.”

Xie Ning suddenly stopped struggling. She looked at Xie Jing with a calm voice: “Do you know an old saying from my hometown?”

“Huh?” Xie Jing was taken aback. He instinctively looked down at Xie Ning, only to see that Xie Ning had freed herself from the bindings without him noticing. She raised her hand and slashed at his neck, the blood-stained metal piece in her hand slicing open Xie Jing’s throat.

With a sound like a “pfft,” a gush of warm blood sprayed out, splashing onto Xie Ning’s face.

Xie Ning wiped it away expressionlessly: “That saying is, Villains die because they talk too much.”

Xie Jing felt a sudden pain in his throat. He instinctively clutched his neck, and blood seeped out from between his fingers. His face was filled with uncontrollable horror. He stumbled backward a few steps, but tripped over the debris behind him and fell to the ground. The only sounds he could make when trying to speak were “ho ho.”

Only then did Xie Ning slowly untie the rope on her feet. She stood up and walked to Xie Jing, watching him struggle on the ground like a fish out of water. She picked up a brick and smashed it onto Xie Jing, once, then again.

“You killed your parents, you killed the villagers. Do you have any humanity?!”

“Do you know your sister is also dead!”

“Beast! Bastard! These innocent dead people were truly cursed!”

Having narrowly escaped death, Xie Ning also needed to vent her emotions.

She threw the brick down, panting, looking at Xie Jing, whose head was smashed to a pulp. She checked carefully—the guy was somehow still breathing.

“Truly resilient!”

Xie Ning pretended to be relaxed and kicked the barely breathing Xie Jing: “Don’t worry, you can rest in peace. I will get everything you wanted using your identity.”

“Your identity, your property, and your coveted Eldest Princess.”

“Oh, I forgot to tell you one thing: I like women.”

As soon as she finished speaking, Xie Jing’s chest suddenly heaved, then fell again, and there was no more movement.

Xie Ning’s hands trembled uncontrollably, and her cheeks twitched constantly. After confirming Xie Jing was truly dead, she finally sat on the floor, gasping for air. The smell of blood seeped into her nostrils with every breath. Xie Ning couldn’t hold it in anymore and bent over, dry heaving on the ground.

After calming down for a while, Xie Ning’s emotions finally settled somewhat. She smiled silently, grateful for her survival.

What she had just said wasn’t entirely to provoke Xie Jing. No one understood better than a transmigrator how difficult it was for a woman to survive in ancient society.

Especially since she was now homeless.

The only thing she could do was temporarily take Xie Jing’s identity and then find an opportunity to accumulate enough capital to survive.

Xie Jing was right about one thing: the identity of a Xie family descendant combined with the status of Imperial Consort could easily allow Xie Ning to get everything she wanted.

However, there was the difficulty of sharing a bed with the Eldest Princess. But if she could stall for a while, once she had saved up enough money, she could just claim she was impotent. The Eldest Princess would surely be unable to accept it. Whether she was divorced or amicably separated, Xie Ning would accept it, and then find a quiet place to live a comfortable, relaxing life.

Perfect!

Xie Ning changed into Xie Jing’s groom’s attire and, following the plot of a crime investigation drama, calmly cleaned up the body.

After dealing with the scene, Xie Ning smiled faintly, muttered a few words to herself, and her voice became exactly like Xie Jing’s.

It helped that she was a voice actor in her previous life.

“Hello, my name is Xie Jing.”

Boom!

A clap of thunder. Lightning sliced through the night sky, and heavy rain poured down. In the distance, many hurried footsteps splashed through the water on the ground.

“Hurry, someone! The Imperial Consort is here!”

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