Chapter 1

In Great Qi, there lived an old general named Bu. Infamous for his indulgent tastes and love of beauty, he received gifts from both allies and enemies at court. Men and women alike were sent to please him. His private mansion bloomed with courtesans and charm, a garden of songbirds and blossoms that stirred envy in every visitor.

Among his oldest rivals was the Prime Minister, Lu Binglian. One day, Prime Minister Lu sent him a male bedslave, claiming it was an offering of peace. After years of butting heads, he no longer wished to quarrel. That was the official reason. But on the very night the gift arrived, the old general was assassinated.

Prime Minister Lu was just as shocked as everyone else. He tried to explain, but the general’s subordinates were all hot-blooded men of war who listened with fists, not reason.

From that moment on, the two sides were locked in blood feud. Reconciliation was impossible.

After the general’s death, his men rallied behind his son, Bu Nian, and appointed him as the new commander.

The young general took over his father’s estate, but for a whole year, he was too burdened by official matters to deal with the many concubines his father had left behind. By the time he had the time to care, an entire year had passed.

The male bedslave sent by Prime Minister Lu had been living in that mansion all this time, treated as a spy by everyone in the household. After all, everyone knew the general’s death was tied to the Prime Minister, and the boy he had sent was seen as nothing but a planted snake.

But in truth, the boy had simply been picked up at random by one of Prime Minister Lu’s trusted aides, bought from a brothel with barely a thought. He wasn’t clever, had no martial skills, and possessed no real value.

His name was Lian Ai, chosen because it sounded like “pity” and “affection.” To put it bluntly, he was nothing but a pretty face and an empty shell.

“Heh. You lost Sister Yi’s hairpin. Don’t even think about coming back up if you don’t find it.”

The weather was bitterly cold. Lian Ai was soaked from head to toe, his lower half submerged in the icy pond as he leaned forward, fumbling around in the water. A group of brightly dressed men and women stood on the shore, tossing jeers at him between fits of laughter.

“That hairpin was a gift from the old master,” said one heavily made-up woman with a sharp face. “You’re truly heartless. Not only did you conspire with outsiders to get him killed, now you can’t even leave me a single keepsake?”

She dabbed at the corners of her eyes with a delicate finger, though no tears were there.

Someone nearby quickly chimed in, “Sister Yi, don’t get upset over a filthy thing like him. We’ll find the hairpin. And if we don’t, we’ll make him pay with his life.”

Lian Ai’s entire lower body was freezing. His legs had gone numb, and his fingers were raw and purple from digging through the water. They were badly frostbitten, red and swollen from the cold. Still, he grit his teeth and said nothing. He continued searching the pond floor for the missing hairpin because he knew that if he resisted, things would only get worse. More cruel punishments. More unbearable humiliation.

These people had no pity for him. The more pitiful he looked, the more pain he endured, the more satisfied they became. That was the only way to make them stop.

The cold gnawed at him. Every step forward drained what little warmth he had left. Lian Ai blew shakily into his palms, trying to warm his fingers. Even if the heat vanished in an instant, to him, it was something precious.

Suddenly, a sharp pain shot through Lian Ai’s shoulder. His body lurched forward, nearly plunging headfirst into the icy water.

“Hurry up and keep looking. Don’t you dare slack off.”

One of the people on the shore had seen him stop moving and assumed he was slacking. They picked up a rock and threw it at him.

A dull ache pulsed from his shoulder. His body bruised easily. Just a light bump would turn into a blotchy patch of purple and blue. This one would definitely leave a mark.

Back in the brothel, this trait had once made him worth more than gold. Skin that bruised easily meant little on an ordinary person, but on a bedslave, it was a gift from heaven.

His face was not particularly stunning, just delicately handsome, like a frail young scholar. But allure rests in the bone, not the skin. His body was pale as jade, his frame fine as porcelain. He was born to seduce. Even before he’d ever been touched, men fought like dogs for the chance to be the first in his bed.

They circled like starving wolves, waiting for the day he turned sixteen, when his name would be officially listed and his first night up for auction. But before that day came, he was secretly bought by one of Prime Minister Lu’ s men and sent off to the General’s estate.

He was nothing more than property, a tool with no voice of his own. His fate had always rested in someone else’s hands, then and now.

The cold had begun to blur his senses. Dark spots clouded his vision. He straightened his back with effort and looked up toward the shore, pressing a hand against his bruised left shoulder, hoping to beg for a brief moment of rest. But what he saw instead was the tall figure standing behind the crowd.

Bu Nian had been standing there for who knew how long. His arms were crossed, his expression cold and stiff. The way he stood even gave off a sense of irritation.

He looked directly at Lian Ai. Their gazes met. There was no trace of shame in Bu Nian’s eyes. No awkwardness at being caught watching. Just calm, detached indifference.

“What are you doing?”

His voice rang out. Only then did the crowd become aware of his arrival.

It was Bu Nian’s first time setting foot in the private mansion since inheriting the estate. The gathered concubines and attendants were stunned, then immediately excited. All of them wanted to seize the moment, to show off and catch the new general’s eye.

“General.”

“General, we were just..”

They began to explain in a flurry of voices, everyone speaking over each other. The story had already grown bloated with exaggeration by the time it reached his ears.

The woman in the pink peony gown had once been a favorite when the old general was alive. She was the most senior concubine, and the rest respectfully called her Sister Yi. Back then, she lived comfortably, with hopes that she might even be officially brought into the general’s main residence.

But the old man died, and with that dream shattered, her hatred for Lian Ai festered into something venomous.

She took the lead in bullying Lian Ai, thinking up every possible way to torment him. Even if he avoided her, she would deliberately set traps to make him fall in.

For the past year, she had made his life miserable.

Concubine Yi put on a sorrowful face and began, “I was just chatting with the other ladies on the bridge when Lian Ai walked by. I tried to be kind and speak to him, but he ignored me. I could’ve let that go. But then he knocked the red agate hairpin off my head, the one the old master gave me. They already killed him, and now they won’t even let me keep the gifts he left behind?”

Bu Nian glanced at the pale, frail youth standing in the icy water, then waved a hand to signal his attendant to pull him out.

No one knew what he planned to do. They exchanged confused glances, trying to guess his intent.

His gaze returned to Concubine Yi. “They killed my father. And that’s it?”

His eyes turned sharp and predatory. The pressure from his stare made her feel cold in her bones.

“Who said it was over?” he asked. “You? Because you said so?”

Everyone went dead silent and dropped to their knees.

Knowing she had said the wrong thing, Concubine Yi began slapping herself over and over.

“General, please forgive me. I misspoke. They deserve to die. Anyone who got the master killed should die. Please forgive me. Please.”

Lian Ai had to be dragged up by the servants. His legs were too weak to move, and the cold wind stabbed into his joints with every gust. He was thrown down in front of Bu Nian, who didn’t even look at him.

With a wave of his hand, Bu Nian gave another order.

“Throw her in.”

He looked right at Concubine Yi as he said it.

Concubine Yi shrieked in terror. “General, please have mercy. I was wrong. I won’t do it again. Please, I beg you.”

The others were trembling where they knelt, too scared to even breathe.

“The hairpin is lost, isn’t it? If you don’t go in and search for it yourself, how can you claim to deserve my father’s favor?”

Then he looked at the rest. “You stand by and watch her. If she can’t find it before sundown, all of you go in and help her look.”

They frantically kowtowed in fear, too terrified to say a word.

Bu Nian stood tall in his black robes, looking down on them all like ants.

He walked toward Lian Ai, each step sounding out softly but pounding in everyone’s chest.

“Remember your place. You will never be the master here. You are livestock. You are objects. You are dogs fed by the General’s household. Do not dare see yourself as anything more. And do not try to play games in front of me.”

He came to a stop before Lian Ai, raised his boot, and kicked the boy over onto his back, then looked down at him.

“Do you understand?”

Lian Ai fought to stay conscious, but his eyelids kept sinking.

“Understood…” he slurred.

The man who ruled them like a god walked away soon after. The next day, half the concubines in the outer courtyard were gone.

Word was, they had all been sold off. Concubine Yi among them. Lian Ai was one of the few who remained, which surprised everyone, even himself.

His body had weakened from the cold, and he spent the entire winter sick, coughing constantly. He thought it would be a long time before he ever saw Bu Nian again. After all, the general was busy. Why would a man like that make time to visit a bunch of grain-wasting, useless livestock like them?

Yet when spring came, General Bu returned. It had only been two months since his last visit.

This time, he came with a purpose. It seemed the livestock finally had a use. But that purpose was strange. Bold. Indulgent. And utterly beyond belief.

Bu Nian locked down the mansion and gathered the remaining twenty-some concubines and entertainers. Then he announced his twisted competition.

“I have here thirty well-trained, strong-willed soldiers. You will be split into two groups, and each group will have one incense stick’s time to showcase your charm before them.”

“They will sit below the stage and watch you flaunt every enticing posture you know. But they won’t be allowed to touch you. When it’s over, each soldier will pick the one they most wish to share a night with. The winner will receive the highest reward from me.”