On the night the kingdom fell, I clutched the Imperial Jade Seal and charged into the rebel ranks.
With his dying breath, the old eunuch screamed, “Burn it! We must never let the traitors get their hands on the former dynasty’s secret archives!”
As the flames consumed the vermilion-lacquered chest, the gold-inlaid jade seal accidentally rolled to my feet.
On the run, the Ninth Prince, gravely wounded, clutched my bloodstained skirt:
“You hold the Imperial Jade Seal, and I hold the fate of the empire. We’ll each take half the realm.”
Later, he donned the imperial robes, but forced the phoenix seal into my hands.
The entire court knelt and cried, “Long live the empress!”
No one knew that in the hidden compartment beneath the dragon throne,
his handwritten abdication edict already bore the vermilion mark of the Imperial Jade Seal.
