Gluttonous Crown Princess

It was March; Spring filled the air with warmth as peach blossoms bloomed brilliantly.

The city of Chang’an was decorated with lanterns and fluttering brocade streamers everywhere.
The two sides of Zhuque Street were brightly lit; the common folk were shoulder to shoulder as they crowded around, watching the excitement while exchanging whispered discussions——

“The crown prince’s wedding is really lavish huh!”

“Of course! The future ruler’s getting married, how can it not be a lavish affair? Besides, the crown prince may only be having this one wedding in his life, so of course it would be carried out grandly.”

“Sigh, our crown prince is really pitiful.
Such a wise and refined person, yet so frail and sickly……”

“The crown prince is pitiful, the crown princess he’s marrying is also pitiful.
She’s a legitimate daughter1 of a marquis, yet is being betrothed to a sickly man who doesn’t have long to live, in hopes that the happy affair will chase away his ill fortune.
If the crown prince passes, wouldn’t she become a young widow at such a young age?”

Amidst the enthusiastic exchange, the magnificent bridal sedan followed the long line of guards of honour and entered the Eastern Palace.　　

The prince was too weak with illness to personally welcome his bride.
So, only when the bridal sedan came all the way to the entrance of the Eastern Palace did the crown prince appear for the kicking of the bridal sedan2, and receive his bride.

The matchmaker2 beamed as she said towards the bridal sedan, “Crown Princess, we have arrived at the Eastern Palace.
Get ready, His Highness is coming to receive you!”

The bridal sedan was silent.

The matchmaker called again; still nothing.
Could the bride have slept through the entire journey?

A bad premonition crept into her heart; she lifted a corner of the curtain for a quick look.

With just one look, the matchmaker’s expression suddenly changed drastically.
Her legs weakened, and she almost fell to the ground. 

Inside the bridal sedan, a bride in a bold red wedding dress leaned limply to the side, her eyes tightly closed, and a trace of black blood trickled from the corners of her red lips.

Next to the hand that was dangling lifelessly was a little white porcelain bottle.

The bride who was meant to bring good fortune to the crown prince, had committed suicide by ingesting poison before the ceremony!

———

When Tao Ti opened her eyes, she was greeted by a sea of festive red.

Bold red bridal canopy, bold red pillows and brocade quilt, bold red wedding dress, bold red paper cuttings in the shape of Double Happiness3…… What sort of situation was this?

Seemingly in answer to her question, in the next moment, a torrent of memories flooded into her mind.

The owner of this body was also called Tao Ti.
She was the legitimate daughter of Marquis Yong Wei of the great Yuan Dynasty4, and was sixteen years old this year.
The Marquis Yong Wei’s wife, Madam Zhang, and Empress Gu were close friends.
When Tao Ti was born, the two friends then agreed to become in-laws.

Childhood arranged marriages were very common in ancient times.
However, the year after the engagement was made, Empress Gu died of illness.

Not long after, the five-year-old young prince fell into the ice lake and ruined his constitution ever since.
He would get a cold once every three days, a high fever once every five, and had been able to cling onto life solely with the aid of medicinal decoctions.
Half a year ago, the Directorate of Astronomy divined that the crown prince’s death was imminent, and unfortunately might not live past the age of twenty-three.

The crown prince is twenty-one this year.

The emperor loved the crown prince dearly, so he arranged for a wedding for him in hopes that it would chase away his ill fortune.

He never thought that the bride’s heart already belonged to someone else.
On top of that, as she was unwilling to marry a sickly prince who would be dying soon, she chose to end her life in the bridal sedan.

As a result of a strange combination of circumstances, Tao Ti, who had a fatal case of food poisoning, transmigrated here. 

After gaining clarity about her situation, Tao Ti only wanted to rage at her injurious friend, that qiongqi5, whose IQ is as low as that of a common husky——

That fella had returned from a trip to Yunnan and brought her a bunch of mushrooms.
Only after polish