The Banquet of Startled Branches

Gu Qiao was seven when her family was confiscated in Youzhou. Her mother did everything she could to send her to her aunt’s home in the capital, where she became the third young lady of the Gu family. But her good days didn’t last long. Her birth family fell from power, and her uncle doted on his concubine while neglecting his wife. To protect her ailing aunt and uncover the truth behind her family’s downfall, Gu Qiao had no choice but to find a way into the palace as a female official. She thought her uncle would treat her aunt well out of consideration for her position, but then a letter arrived from the Gu family, demanding that she marry to repay a favor. She was given three choices: become the concubine of a sixty-year-old official, become the stepmother to a widower’s two sons, or marry a sickly man to bring him good fortune. Gu Qiao chose none of them. Instead, one night she slept with Prince Yan, the emperor’s sixth son, who had just returned from a military campaign and been granted permission to spend the night in the palace. She would carve out her own future. Every family in the capital had its eye on the position of Princess Consort of Yan, but no one expected Prince Yan, with his exacting standards, to choose the daughter of a fifth-rank capital official. A friend asked the high-minded Prince Yan, “What do you see in Gu Qiao? She is beautiful, sure, but the capital is full of beauties, and her status is low...” Yan Lan smiled without answering, looking inscrutable. In truth, he had gone from being shocked when she first slept with him to becoming addicted to it. Everyone said that Official Gu was cool, quiet, steady, and dull, but he thought she was dazzling when she was aroused. When she tried to seduce him, she was clearly inexperienced and bashful, yet still pretended to be practiced. He found it fascinating. But how could the woman he had his eye on suddenly be about to marry someone else?