The Powerful and Privileged

[Su Xiaohe x Yang Yi]

In the fifth year of the Tiansheng era, the Cai family of the capital is implicated in a case and its members are arrested. Young Yang Yi is suddenly reduced to the status of a lowly registered orphan. Fortunately, an old friend of her mother’s comes to her aid and rescues her from prison. From then on, she has a delicate, doll-like young mistress.

Her young mistress is lively and spirited, and treats her wonderfully. Though she is the mistress, she shields Yang Yi from harm; though born to wealth and nobility, she always calls Yang Yi “elder sister,” even though Yang Yi never responds in kind.

They are together day and night, never apart. Yang Yi once believed she would spend her whole life by the young princess’s side, but the feelings growing in the shadows gnaw at her like a wolf, relentlessly, day and night.

At first, she can still control herself. Later…

She struggles in terror like a trapped beast.

Her young princess was born noble, as radiant and pure as the moon. How could Yang Yi bear to drag her into the mud?

All she wishes is for her to live in peace and health, shining forever like the moon and rising ever higher like the sun.

Just then, an old case in the capital is reopened, and Yang Yi’s family comes looking for her. Cowardly, she chooses to fake her death and leave, never realizing how deeply the young princess cares for her…

When they meet again, her old friend has forgotten her and has someone new by her side.

Does it hurt? Of course. Like a sponge soaked through with ice water, heavy in her chest, every breath bringing a fine, sharp ache.

But when your heart belongs to someone, your body and soul are in thrall. That pain is nothing compared to the joy of seeing her again…

Everyone says the emperor’s daughter, reclaimed from among the common people, is a “Bao Si,” and that to make her smile, one must light beacon fires to fool the lords.

Su Xiaohe, who has met her in person, dismisses the rumor. “Wise people don’t believe rumors. Don’t believe them, and don’t spread them.”

But Su Xiaohe doesn’t know the rumor isn’t baseless. In Bao Si’s eyes, she alone is worth all the beacon fires lit to fool the lords.