She is his empress, having used her family’s influence and her own cunning to help him ascend the throne. Yet he brings his former first love into the palace and makes her a Noble Consort.
That woman smiles and says, “All I have to do is crook my finger, and he comes crawling to me like a dog.”
She doesn’t believe it. Not until her rival pushes her into the water, and he saves the other woman first. She loses her child, but he merely says, “You’re the empress. You should know how to be tolerant.”
A Man takes the blame for her and is beaten to death. Kneeling in the snow, she watches A Man’s blood flow to her knees.
At last, he takes her phoenix seal.
But he has forgotten: a daughter of the Shen family never accepts her fate.
Smiling, she offers him one final bowl of medicine. “Xiao Yan, in that ruined temple all those years ago, you said you would never let me down. You haven’t let me down. You’re simply... unworthy of me.”
Later, she holds her young son and rules from behind the curtain, grinding that man and woman to dust.
In the evening breeze, she suddenly laughs. “I was such a fool before, giving my empire away to someone else for nothing.”
