I was once the lowest-ranking palace maid in the Laundry Bureau. While kneeling to wash the Noble Consort’s feet, she crushed the bones in my fingers beneath her heel.
Ten years later, a new emperor ascended the throne, and the phoenix seal fell into my hands.
On her first day, she came to give me a blood-jade bracelet. “Your Highness, this servant was young and foolish back then.”
I smiled and took the bracelet, then suddenly let it slip from my hand.
As the jade shattered, I leaned close and whispered in her ear:
“Guess where your son, the one you had with a palace guard... is now?”
