The Empress Consort's Favor: Step Aside, Childhood Friend

I was the empress chosen in person by the Empress Dowager.

Everyone envied me for being the mother of the realm, but behind closed doors I was weighed down with worry.

Everyone in the palace knew the emperor had a childhood sweetheart, a woman as aloof and pure as a chrysanthemum, with a bond dating back to their early years.

With three palaces, six courtyards, and seventy-two consorts, I had never expected love from this marriage.

But he gave my child to his childhood sweetheart to raise after she sank into depression from losing her own baby.

He did not understand me. I may be virtuous and gracious, but I will not let someone else share my husband and take my child away, too.