Snow Blankets the Hall of Eternal Life

I, Su Yuejian, was forced to take my older sister’s place in the palace. All I wanted was to stay alive.

Yet I stole a little time in the heart of spring:

The spoiled consort shielded me behind her. “She’s one of mine. Who do you think you are to lecture her?”

The gentle physician brewed medicine for me late at night. “Yuejian, take good care of yourself.”

The aloof scholar swore sisterhood with me beneath the moon. “The palace is so lonely. I’m lucky to have found a kindred spirit.”

We buried a “time capsule” and promised to be sisters for life.

Until His Majesty brought back a woman in tattered clothes, tears shining in her eyes.

She called me sister, twisting the hem of her clothes, so frail she could barely care for herself.

Then my sisters died one after another. The consort who had protected me was poisoned, and even the dignified empress was driven to take her own life.

That night, beneath a heavy snowfall, I burned our time capsule.

I studied that woman’s manner and practiced her most pitiful smile in the mirror.

“Since you all love her this way, ”

“Then from today on, I’ll be her.”

I used the art of tea the consort had taught me to read people, and the token the empress had given me to kill.

I conquered the entire palace and became the youngest empress dowager.

But without their laughter and warmth, even the grandest empire was nothing but an endless sentence I had to serve alone.

It turned out the inner palace had never changed. The one doing the devouring had simply become me.

This is not a story about victory, but one about loss. She conquered the entire palace, yet lost the girl who used to laugh beneath the pear tree.