She was the celebrated Princess of Weiguo, delicate and sickly, yet renowned for her keen mind. She married the wise, decisive, and ruthless young emperor of Xueguo, Emperor Jingyuan, and was granted the title of Consort Yi.
The official histories have only a few words to say about her.
Xiao Weiyang, Princess Changle of Weiguo, married into Xueguo in the thirty-fifth year of Kangjia. In the first year of Jingyuan, she was granted the title of Consort Yi.
But the stories passed around among the people are far more numerous.
They say she once enjoyed the emperor’s undivided favor, eclipsing every other woman in the imperial harem.
They say Chancellor Fan Shaoli called her a demon and staged a coup because of her. Emperor Jingyuan had the chancellor’s entire family executed in the marketplace, turning the streets red with blood.
They say Emperor Jingyuan cherished her above all else, yet destroyed her homeland and left her father to die in a foreign land.
The battles of the imperial harem, the chancellor’s coup, the empress dowager’s usurpation, the struggle for the throne, the war between Wei and Xue… At the center of it all, was she merely one of his pawns, or the woman etched deepest into his heart?
It's very interesting. Shang Qing was wrong. He shouldn't have fallen and he shouldn't have hurt the one he loved. His childhood sweetheart couldn't withstand being airborne. In fact, the more he held on, the tighter he became. It was a pity that a teenage love affair was over. The heroine was all pretentious to keep her heart occupied.
The plot is very compact, and the heroine's character is interesting. I'm still reading it, so I'll comment after a while.