The Tyrant's Beloved Empress

7

An Changqi had once been An Chang Qing's nightmare for a long time.

An Chang Qing had been gifted with beauty since birth. When he was still an adolescent and his features had not fully developed, he had an androgynous appearance. The girls were jealous for he looked prettier than themselves while the boys hated him for being too feminine. For a long time, he had spent his childhood in darkness. The only one who ever reached out to him was An Changqi.

As the only child of the second branch, An Changqi had been showered with affection the moment he was born. He was five years older than An Chang Qing. When An Chang Qing was twelve, he was already a young man of sixteen to seventeen. In addition to the eldest grandson, An Chang Yu, he was one of the Grand Matriarch's favorite grandchildren.

After he had reprimanded the other younger children and rescued An Chang Qing from the woodshed, An Chang Qing really did admire and respect this brother. An Changqi had also been good to him since then, always saving him from the bullies and buying him delicious snacks and beautiful clothes.

If it wasn't on his twelve birthday that An Changqi had tried to rape him, everything would've been fine.

An Chang Qing could vividly recall that day in the spring. His birthday was on the 15th of February, the exact day of the spring equinox. The entire An family was preparing for the spring banquet but no one remembered that the Third Young Master had also been born on this day.

After eating the longevity noodles that his mother had cooked for him, An Chang Qing was about to go gather some herbs when An Changqi had gone to see him.

An Changqi had seemed particularly happy that day and An Chang Qing could still remember his every word:

"Third brother, today is your birthday. I have prepared a present for you, do you want to see it?"

The naive An Chang Qing had happily followed him, never doubting that he was being led into an empty room to fulfill An Changqi's desires. At that moment, An Changqi had completely shown his true face. Speaking words of affection while his eyes were filled with lust, he had tried to talk An Chang Qing into submission.

Although An Chang Qing had been naive, he wasn't a fool. He had grabbed a brass candlestick and whacked him on the head. While An Changqi had been distracted by the pain, he had climbed out the window and jumped into the rockscape pond. Because An Changqi did not know how to swim and a servant happened to be passing by, An Chang Qing had managed to escape that traumatizing ordeal.

But after that event, An Changqi completely tore off his mask. He no longer stood up for him and had even instigated the others to bully him. When they happened to meet, his eyes had been those of a hungry wolf wanting to eat him alive. An Chang Qing's life since then had gotten a lot harder, apart from having to deal with the malice in his own family, he even had to avoid the young master of the second branch.

Until after An Changqi turned eighteen and had married, only then did An Chang Qing have better days and eventually, managed to put this matter behind.

It's just that he had always assumed that apart from An Changqi and himself, no one else had known about this disgusting past.

To think that An Zhi Ke had always known. If he knew that An Changqi had once treated him well, then how could he not know the misdeeds An Changqi did to him later? The reason for this change, as the head of the family, how could he not know?

Moreover, after getting out of the pond, he had been pale and shivering due to the cold and fear. He hadn't returned to Rainbow Garden in order to not worry his mother. He could only carry a fickle hope and ran to his father but An Zhi Ke did not even want to hear him. He had given him a scolding and driven him back to Rainbow Garden.