The Palace Artifact Restorer: I Became a Noble Consort in the Ming Dynasty

Su Wenyue, a restorer of Ming artifacts at the National Museum, was electrocuted and fell unconscious while restoring a jade hairpin buried with Consort Wan.

When she opened her eyes again, she had become the nineteen-year-old palace maid Wan Zhen'er: the woman in the history books who was seventeen years older than the emperor, held his exclusive favor for half a lifetime, and bore the age-old infamy of “persecuting the imperial heirs.”

Kneeling before her was the five-year-old deposed Crown Prince, Zhu Jianshen.

History recorded that he would follow her through life and death, abolish an empress for her, indulge her relatives, and establish the Western Depot, leaving behind a legacy of “Chenghua misrule.”

Armed with the answers history had recorded, she walked a tightrope:

■ Use psychology to heal the sensitive prince’s childhood wounds, building him a safe haven in the shadow of the Coup at the Gate

■ Apply the principles of artifact management to reform the inner palace, quietly improving the lives of three thousand palace attendants within the gaps in the historical record

■ Maneuver behind the scenes to avert the historic accusation that she “persecuted imperial princes,” trying to save the future Hongzhi Emperor and his mother

Just as she thought she had balanced her conscience against the course of history, the man on the Dragon Throne took her hand. “Zhen'er, I know where you came from. If this empire stands against you, I choose you.”

Later, she accompanied him from the Cold Palace to the Golden Throne Hall, from childhood to old age.

Later, he created imperial estates to gather the world’s rarest treasures for her, established the Western Depot to silence her slanderers, and never took another consort until his death.

Later, when archaeologists opened Consort Wan’s tomb, they found a line of tiny English engraving on the inner wall of that jade hairpin:

“I came from the future, just to love you.”

[A nontraditional palace-intrigue story, with historical research and redemption]

“I fear not the historians’ brush painting me as incompetent. I fear only that later generations will forget how my moonlight once shone upon the Ming!”