She was the legitimate daughter of the Minister of Revenue’s household, but the Eastern Palace broke off their engagement because her family had low status, making her the laughingstock of the capital.
While the entire capital waited for her to weep and take her own life, she turned her embroidery studio into a teahouse and calmly watched the world’s fickleness unfold.
Then the prince who had endured in silence for years came through the snow and offered her a contract, risking his life to ask for her hand.
He said, “I don’t want a virtuous wife. I want a strategist who can stand beside me and fight for the throne.”
She said, “I don’t want the title of princess. I want to open a path to success for humble-born scholars, a road that has been closed for a hundred years.”
On their wedding day, the whole household was stunned and the entire court was in an uproar.
But no one knew that behind this marriage lay a thousand-year declaration of war by the humble-born against the aristocracy.
