After transmigrating into a book, Lin Wan becomes a lowly palace maid in the inner palace. The moment she opens her eyes, she encounters a frail child in Hanzhang Palace. He is Xiao Jin, the bloodthirsty, ruthless tyrant feared throughout the history books, a man who massacred his own relatives and ultimately brought his country to ruin. But right now, he is merely a concubine-born child whose mother died young, bullied at every turn and unable even to get a proper meal. Seeing the countless bruises on the child's body, Lin Wan's heart trembles. She doesn't want to die by the tyrant's blade, and she can't bear to watch him walk step by step toward his destined tragedy. From then on, she secretly stashes away warm buns and shields him from open and hidden attacks, using her frail body to carve out a small haven for him. “A Jin, your big sister is here for you.” She teaches him to read and write, to hide his sharp edges, and to understand warmth and kindness. She thinks she is only changing the tyrant's fate, never realizing that the child who clutched her hem in Hanzhang Palace has already engraved her into his very bones. When the child of old grows into a crown prince with power over the realm, and then an emperor who rules all under heaven, Lin Wan finally realizes that this encounter across time was never a one-sided act of salvation.
Beautiful, healing text