My mother was a maid in the Cold Palace, yet she helped my father ascend the throne.
On the day he was crowned, my father made the chancellor's legitimate daughter empress and gave my mother only the lowest-ranking consort title.
My father said, "Jin Niang, I am the emperor."
"Your birth is too lowly. I can't give you a higher rank."
So my mother stayed within the palace walls, neither fighting nor competing for favor.
My father thought her patience meant understanding, while the empress mistook her retreat for fear.
They never gave my mother or me a second thought.
And so, amid the bloody struggles of the court and inner palace, my mother steered clear of every overt and covert attack and raised me to be peerless.
