I Became the Empress Dowager, Yet the Empress Insulted Me as Her Favorite Consort

I was the emperor’s wet nurse.

I once risked my life to protect him during the struggle for the throne.

Back when he was still crown prince, someone threw him into a lotus pond in the dead of winter.

I leapt into the water and kept him afloat with my own body all night, saving the young boy from freezing to death.

Later, when he was targeted several times as an adult, I risked my life to save him each time.

Once, during a hunt in the imperial menagerie, I took a sword meant for him. My right arm never recovered.

That is why the emperor treated me with the utmost respect and never once refused me anything.

He even ignored the ministers’ objections and bestowed on me the title of Western Empress Dowager, allowing me to rule from behind the curtain.

Later, when my old illness returned, I moved to a convent outside the palace to recuperate.

But before I could recover, the emperor’s future empress mistook me for the beauty he kept outside the palace.

She beat me until I was covered in bruises, then dragged me by the hair and threw me into the street to humiliate me.

She thought that would keep me from competing with her for his favor.

She had no idea she had brought disaster upon herself, or that her death was near.