The Fine Print✔️

Chapter 1

"Ouch! Damn it, Hua! If you keep at it like this, I will be bald before you are done fixing the fucking headpiece." I try to hold still on my stool in my bed-chamber as LiHua, my bosom friend (and head maid), tugs on my hair. She had been battling with my thick mane to secure the bridal headpiece on my royal head.

"Juan... Your highness, please hold still. I am almost done." LiHua reassures, sounding like a person on the brink of accepting defeat. I couldn't have that. She and her mother were the sole reason my days in this dreadful place, my home, so to speak, were not filled with misery. She was like the breath of fresh air in this place that wanted nothing to do with me.

I stop fidgeting and try to endure. I was good at it, after all. "Hua, is there anyone around here?" I ask.

Her brows crease. She scans the room. "Damn it, Juan, you scared me!" Her tone is accusing.

"Why? Did you think aunty LiFen was here?" I chuckle and get stabbed in the scalp as a reward.

For a maid, Hua was quite bold, but then again, it was to be expected. She was aunty LiFen's daughter, after all.

"Fine. I won't tease you anymore." I reassure and look at myself in the mirror. Hua had woken me up bright and early, earlier than usual, and after helping me bathe in some sort of scented rose petal sprinkled water, had immediately gotten to work meticulously preparing me for the wedding... my wedding.

"Hey," Hua calls me softly and gives my shoulder a squeeze. "Cheer up, will you? It's your wedding day. You will finally be free of this wretched place." She smiles and helps me up. Turning me around, she catches my gaze before stepping back to give me a once-over. "Perfect." She mutters, and then leaning in, she whispers, "I am sure Prince Zhan wouldn't be able to keep his eyes and hands off of you."

"Prince Zhan... " I sigh. The name leaves a bitter taste in my mouth. My future husband was the crown prince of TuCheng. He was known for precisely two things: alcohol and promiscuity. The latter was what had bothered me more than his small kingdom and his apparent lack of interest in anything that did not involve the forth mentioned things.

The day I had received news that my aunt, Queen Lai, had arranged for a match for me, aunty LiFen had come and taught me about the birds and the bees. It was enlightening and scary at the same time. She had done her best to calm me down. She had explained that if done right, it could be a satisfying and pleasurable experience.

"He is a prince. I bet he is big." Hua had added coyly and promptly received a slap on the back of her head from her mother.

I hadn't understood what being big had to do with being a prince, but seeing as it had angered the latter, I had chosen to remain silent.

Exactly a day after that, I started noticing the palace maid giving me woeful looks. On confronting them, however, they shrugged and fringed ignorance.

"It's only a matter of time before someone spills. " I had told myself. For, in my experience, there was no such thing as a secret when it came to palace gossip. I was proved right a few days later when Hua had come sulking into my chamber and hugged me.

Hugs were bad news. They usually either followed or preceded something that would bring me pain, either emotional, physical, or psychological and sometimes all three.

"Tell me." I had asked, bracing myself for the pain I knew was coming my way, and gave myself a congratulatory pat on my shoulder when she blurted out, "Prince Wei Zhan... He... He has a small.. you know... he is small." She had trailed off looking constipated.

That wasn't so bad, I had told myself. With my luck, it could have been much worse. As long as my future husband was taller than me, I didn't care. I was about to voice my thoughts when Hua had gone on. "Damn it, Juan, he is small down there." Then closing her eyes, she had bitten out, "He is an alcoholic and womanizer to boot!"