I started as a concubine, and I made the crown prince cry with my delicious food.

After the embarrassing incident of "feigning illness" during the day, Liu Ruyan finally realized that her usual displays of talent and feigned weakness had no effect on the Crown Prince.

This man is impervious to reason and has a heart as hard as iron.

She lay on the soft bed in the inn room, tossing and turning, unable to fall asleep.

She is not reconciled.

Born into a prestigious family in Jiangnan, she was pampered and adored from a young age. She was proficient in all the arts, including music, chess, calligraphy, and painting, and her beauty was unparalleled. She had seen countless noblemen and princes, and every one of them treated her with utmost devotion, as if she were a goddess.

But this crown prince ignored her completely, even showing a hint of undisguised disgust.

This intense sense of disparity did not deter her; instead, it aroused her strong competitive spirit and desire to conquer.

She felt that the reason His Highness the Crown Prince was so cold towards her must be because he had never met a woman like herself—beautiful, talented, gentle, and understanding. He must be tired of the vulgar women in the palace who only knew how to fight over him, which was why he was wary of all women.

As long as... as long as I can show him my uniqueness and my sincerity, he will definitely be moved by me.

With this in mind, a bold and crazy plan gradually took shape.

She's going to take a risk.

She wanted him to see that she could disregard everything for him, even abandoning the most important thing a woman can do: to preserve her reputation.

She refused to believe that he could remain unmoved by such a devoted, courageous, and selfless woman like herself!

Night deepened.

The post station was completely silent, except for the occasional footsteps of patrolling soldiers.

The light was still on in Liu Ruyan's room.

She instructed her maid to borrow a stove and pot from the kitchen, and then took out her most prized bird's nest, which she had brought with her, and personally stewed a bowl of nourishing and calming bird's nest soup.

The soup simmered on the stove, releasing a sweet and mellow aroma.

She sat at her dressing table, making final preparations.

She changed out of the elegant long dress she wore during the day and into a gossamer-thin, moon-white gauze robe. The robe was so thin that, in the candlelight, one could vaguely see her shapely figure beneath.

She let her long, black hair fall loosely, tied only loosely with a hairband. Her face was unadorned, which only made her look more pitiful and endearing.

She practiced in front of the mirror several times, capturing that shy yet brave look with a hint of grievance in her eyes.

"Miss, the soup is ready," the maid whispered a reminder.

"Mmm." Liu Ruyan responded, stood up, took one last look at herself in the mirror, and took a deep breath.

Success or failure hinges on this one move.

She personally ladled the still-steaming bird's nest soup into an exquisite white porcelain bowl, carried it on a tray, and then pushed open her bedroom door.

The corridor was deserted in the dead of night, with only a few dim lanterns swaying gently in the night breeze.

Liu Ruyan's heart pounded wildly. She knew what she was doing. She was gambling, gambling with her reputation on a man's heart.

Carrying the tray, she walked step by step to the end of the corridor, to the door of the largest and most impressive room.

She knew that His Highness the Crown Prince lived here.

She didn't knock.

She knelt quietly on the cold floor by the door, placing the bowl of soup neatly in front of her, looking like she was waiting expectantly.

A night breeze blew, lifting her thin gauze dress and making her shiver involuntarily.

But she gritted her teeth and didn't move.

She wanted to use this method to show her "sincerity" and "devotion".

Time passed, second by second.

She didn't know how long she had been waiting; she only felt that her legs had gone numb from kneeling, and her hands, which were holding the soup, had begun to tremble slightly.

Just when she was about to give up, footsteps finally came from inside the room.

The footsteps grew closer.

Liu Ruyan's heart jumped into her throat instantly.

He's coming! He's about to emerge!

She quickly lowered her head, adopting the most vulnerable and pitiful posture that she had practiced countless times.

"Squeak—"

The door was slowly pushed open from the inside.

Liu Ruyan's heart almost stopped beating at that moment.

She timed it perfectly. Just as Xiao Jingshi stepped out of the room, she swayed, let out a soft gasp, and "accidentally" dropped herself and the soup bowl in her hand towards his feet.

She has already made up her mind.

Soup might spill on his robe, and he would instinctively reach out to steady himself.

Then, she could simply fall into his arms.

At such close range, he must have seen the deep affection in her eyes and smelled the fragrance on her body.

A lone man and woman, in the dead of night, throw themselves into each other's arms...

She refused to believe that he could remain unmoved by her charms!

However, reality was completely different from the script she had envisioned.

The moment she fell, the solid chest she had anticipated did not appear.

The figure in front of her simply moved aside half a step, as casually as a gust of wind.

"Snap!"

A crisp cracking sound rang out sharply in the quiet corridor.

The carefully stewed bird's nest soup, along with its expensive white porcelain bowl, crashed heavily to the ground, shattering into a mess.

The scalding soup splashed all over her.

She herself lay sprawled on the cold, soup-stained, and broken ground in an extremely disheveled state.

The anticipated advances and embraces did not occur.

All she felt was a cold, piercing gaze, filled with boundless rage, cast down from above.