The flowers of the Forbidden City bloomed and withered, mercilessly taking one beautiful life after another from the women of the palace.
Rouze's spirit could not leave the Forbidden City. It drifted through the palace, watching the entire farce unfold.
The emperor's professions of love for her made her feel utterly sick.
It was only after Zhen Huan brought Yixiu down that Rouze stayed with her younger sister in Jingren Palace. Every day, she watched her sister weep and murmur about loving the emperor and missing her. Rouze knew that Yixiu was deceiving everyone, herself included.
Yet Rouze had never hated her selfish, pitiful sister. Every woman in this palace was nothing more than a plaything of the emperor.
Another spring arrived. The snow had yet to melt completely, and the plum blossoms Rouze loved were in bloom. A new emperor had already ascended the throne, and the Forbidden City had entered another cycle. Yixiu, however, had forever closed her eyes, long since blinded by tears.
Rouze stood rooted to the spot as the young eunuchs passed through her body and carried Yixiu away in the course of their duties. Her own consciousness began to fade with them.
When she opened her eyes again, she was back in the prince's residence, once more the young girl who had come to visit her younger sister.
Since Heaven had granted her a second chance, she would make the emperor pay for his mistakes, if only for her sister and all the women who had died in the palace struggles.
