It has been snowing for weeks. A white blanket has descended upon the entirety of Xian Capital, covering the streets and alleyways with a thick layer of snow and ice, which makes traversing them via carriage plain simply impossible.
The market, usually the liveliest and most eventful place in the capital, where people from all walks of life and social standing gather to sell their wares, make purchases or enjoy the monthly Lantern Festival, has turned into a ghost town. Activity has been shut down since the snowfall began; the stalls are abandoned and hidden between piles of snow, the wares long since brought to safety.
The entire capital is under lockdown - as per usual. Winter hits hard in the northernmost region of the prosperous Xian Empire. The houses are built with roofs strong enough to withstand the heavy snowfall, the walls thick enough to keep most of the cold out and each room is stocked with a furnace.
The people that have been living here all their lives are used to the cold and the weeks of staying cooped up in their houses, surviving off stocked rice and preserved meat and vegetables until the snowfall stops.
And so does Xian Empire's infamous Prime Minister's unfavored fourth daughter, Fang Yue Zhen.
As a little girl she loved sitting by the window all day, watching in silent fascination as millions of tiny crystalline snowflakes descend upon the world outside, slowly painting the canvas in serene shades of white, blue and gray.
In this particular year, however, Fang Yue Zhen finds little joy in the cold. While every other courtyard inside the emperor's palace is neatly heated and stocked to the prim with food, water supplies and life, Xingshi Courtyard has long since turned into a cold palace. There are no servants and coal to keep the fires running and the little food provided is hardly enough to fill the bellies.
Fang Yue Zhen is sitting on the cold floor, her haggard, malnourished and mistreated body covered in nothing but torn and thin robes. She can barely keep her eyes open. Hunger and cold are gnawing at her broken bones that, combined with dehydration and the pain caused by the severe torture previously inflicted upon her, are slowly driving her to insanity.
The lines between what is real and what merely a hallucination have long since blurred. There is only one thing she knows for sure: She is dying - and it's all because of him.
Venom fills her mouth by the mere thought of the man she has loved for so long, a man she has given up everything for - even her own innocence and dignity. And yet, in the end, he can't even return the smallest bit of her affections. Her used her, lured her in with promise upon promise and then he bled her dry, leaving nothing but a husk - an empty shell of bones and skin, broken beyond repair.
She should have never married him, never given her heart to him. But she has been so utterly stupid and blinded by love that she saw through his schemes too late, realized too late what sort of man she married - and now she will have to pay the price for her foolishness.
"Why?" she whispers, her voice shaking in the same rhythm as her freezing, shivering body. "Why did you have to do this?"
The man towering above her smiles cruelly, his pale and sharp-contoured face devoid of even the smallest inkling of kindness. This is the true face of the Sixth Prince - now Emperor - of Xian Empire, a man that has been both parts praised and mocked for his gentle poise, who has faked his illness for years, who has been underestimated by everyone. He played them all. He played them all very well indeed.
He leans down to her, his thick winter coat shimmering eerily in the darkness of the unlit courtyard as he grabs her chin and forcibly lifts it. "Because, my dear gullible consort, in this world, only those with power survive. Only the strongest, those that don't hesitate to cut down any obstacles littering their path will amount to something in their life. I am now the most powerful man in the entire empire! No one shall look down on me anymore!"
He laughs, though it is not a kind laugh. It's cold and cruel, just like the weather outside - just like the traitorous heart beating in his chest. Has it always sounded like that? Fang Yue Zhen can't remember. Her love and blind devotion for him has turned her oblivious to all of his flaws, caused her to ignore all warning signs.
"Yue Zhen, Yue Zhen. Do you want to know why I agreed to marry you all those years ago, even though your sister would have been a more beneficial match?" His fingers leave her chin and are now ghosting over her slashed cheeks in an almost affectionate manner. Fang Yue Zhen, however, feels nothing but repulse at his proximity.
"I once used to believe you and I are made from the same wood. We are both the lowly born, illegitimate children of our fathers, neglected and spit at even by the common folk. Yet I had the strength and courage to rise above that status, while you are still the same pathetic and weak girl I met at the Flower Banquet all those years ago. I cannot put into words how much you disappointed me. A weak fool like you does not deserve the position of Empress, let alone a consort! So don't blame me for being cruel, my dear. You brought this fate on yourself when you dared to keep me from achieving my goals."
With one last stroke over her cheek, he pulls his hand away and rises from the floor. He doesn't spare her a single glance as he leaves.
"Qin Jing Yi," she whispers, her voice hoarse and weak and yet full of contempt and hatred as the life drains from her body. "The heavens be my witness, you owe me a life debt! I shall come back to collect it!"
As she draws her last breath, a cold breeze blows in through the curtains, carrying her silent oath out into the world.
If there is a next life, I shall never fall in love again.