I woke up as Prince Wei Zhao’s lowly concubine and immediately decided to lie flat. But one twist after another turned me into a woman born under the Golden Phoenix fate, with my destiny bound to Wei Zhao’s.
> While others vie for favor, I study the Song dynasty tea-whisking ceremony. While others plot against me, I develop new recipes for Dongpo pork.
> When the secondary consort orders me to kneel, I pull out my homemade knee pads. When the prince summons me in the middle of the night, I pretend to be asleep and snore.
> Until one day, the prince holds up a greasy skewer of grilled meat and sneers, “I hear you want to buy your freedom and leave the manor?”
> I’m so startled that I drop my chicken wings, but he stuffs the account book into my hands:
> “The household accounts need a lazybones in charge. You’re the one for the job.”
