After the Flowers Fall, Another Spring Comes (Ancient Times)

After the Blossoms Fall, Another Spring

Chapter One: Blossoms Fall Deep Within the Palace Walls

In the early winter of the thirteenth year of Yonghe, the first snowfall came unusually early. Fine flakes mingled with cold rain, wetting the vermilion palace walls until they looked like a dark smear of blood. Shen Qingyi had been kneeling on the freezing golden-brick floor of Changchun Palace for two hours already. The cold crept up through the joints of her knees, inch by inch, soaking into every part of her body. Beneath her thin, plain palace robes, she wore only one layer of padded clothing. Her lips had turned purple with cold, and her body trembled uncontrollably. Just yesterday, she had been the most favored maid summoned to attend the emperor in Changchun Palace, and the closest person to Sixth Prince Zhao Heng