Wedge Jin Gong Hongmei
The twenty-seventh year of Jinghe, the twenty-third of the twelfth lunar month, was a small year.
Snow had fallen under the Imperial City for three whole days. The snow in the Cold Palace seemed heavier and colder than elsewhere. It was like countless fine ice blades, scraping across the bare palace walls, rolling up dead branches and leaves and hitting the window lattice with peeling red paint, making a "wuwu" cry, like the cry of a dead soul. The old red plum tree in front of the steps was in full bloom, and its bright red petals were covered with thick snow. The snow water trickled down along the edges of the petals and froze into thin icicles on the bluestone slab, which looked like solidified blood from a distance.
Su Jinning huddled on the dilapidated nanmu bed. The red palace dress that had been embroidered with the singing of Luan birds had been torn to pieces by torture. On the exposed arms and collarbones, old and new scars were covered with dark red scabs, and blood was still oozing out in some places. She was wrapped in a thin quilt that exuded a musty smell, but she was still so cold that her teeth chattered, not because of the cold in the snow, but because of the cold called "despair" that came from the cracks in her bones.
There was no charcoal fire in the hall, and the only light came from the dome with a hole above her head. Snow foam drifted in from the hole and fell on her scattered hair. It quickly melted, leaving a wet coolness. There were several chipped porcelain bowls piled up in the corner, and the leftover soup inside had long since frozen into hard lumps. A few mice were scurrying around, nibbling at the leftovers without hesitation - in this cold palace, even the mice knew that she, the former noble concubine, was no longer different from these filth.
She was once the eldest daughter of the Taishi Mansion of the Great Yao Dynasty, and was the "Jin Ning Fairy" envied by everyone in the capital. When she was fifteen years old, she was at the Peach Blossom Banquet
