The Palace Maid Who Bore an Heir and Won the Emperor's Favor

[Sweet Romance + Pregnancy + Charming Little Palace Maid vs. Cool, Distant Emperor + His One and Only Favorite + He Falls First + Fake Marriage Before Love] [One-Sentence Summary: A woman used as a tool to conceive an heir gradually becomes the emperor’s favorite and rises to the empress’s throne] Su Qingwan is fair-skinned and beautiful, but she is the lowest-ranking dancer in the opera troupe. Her greatest wish in life is to serve out her years and leave the palace with her elder sister. Unexpectedly, the empress chooses her as a vessel to conceive an heir and personally sends her to the emperor’s bed. To stay safe, she proceeds with caution and finally conceives the imperial child. But after giving birth to a daughter, the empress immediately declares that she “died in childbirth.” She is left with no choice but to spend three years locked away in a ruined palace, without seeing daylight. Only when the little princess arrives does she feel reborn, and she clings tightly to the emperor, her only path to safety. Night after night, she whispers in the emperor’s ear, “I, your humble consort, adore you.” But only she knows that what she loves is his power and favor. In her heart, he will never matter more than her sister and her child. Rong Heng has been emperor for four years and has seen countless beauties. He prides himself on never falling in love with any woman. Until the empress sends him a lovely servant. No matter how hard he tries to restrain himself, he cannot help falling for her tenderness. When she dies in childbirth, he can only give all his tenderness to her daughter. When the truth about her “death in childbirth” comes to light, he learns that she was a victim of the harem’s schemes. In that case, every woman in the harem can become a stepping stone for her rise to the throne. He helps her ascend to the Phoenix Throne, the position every woman in the land envies, only to realize that the heartless little liar never loved him at all. She had only ever seen him as a ladder to success. He holds her captive in his arms and showers her with affection, but never forgets to ask, “Do you love me?” Watching her flushed face, he becomes certain, time and again, that she loves him.