A loud baby’s cry broke the quiet dawn at the residence of General Yin. General Yin’s family had given birth to a black cocoon. It was an extraordinary sight that left the midwife dazed. Thinking it was a baby, she handed the cocoon to someone else, and by then it had turned into a human infant. The child was named Yin Yihuan. From the moment Yin Yihuan was born, five-colored auspicious clouds lit up the sky above the delivery room, shining brilliantly against the half-dark, half-blue heavens. How could such an auspicious omen belong to anyone but the imperial family? An imperial decree arrived, naming her Crown Princess, a title she would formally receive at sixteen.
