She worked as a substitute queen for seven years. She kept a pair of scissors hidden under her pillow. She woke up at 3:00 every night and touched it - it was still there, and she knew she was still alive.
She had been a domineering concubine for three years. There were more than a thousand marks carved under the floor tiles. Every time she was punished, she took one step closer to the palace wall.
On the snowy night of the winter solstice, she took off her cloak and knelt side by side with her outside the Fengxian Hall. On the snow, each hand drew a line heading west.
"Kneel down once and it will be one day closer to leaving."
"You can't walk alone."
From that day on, they began to work together to dismantle the cage. It took two years to measure every door and buy every informant. When the fireworks of the Longevity Festival exploded, one person ran to the palace gate and the other raised the realgar wine glass.
Later, someone received an embroidery outside the palace, a spring scene in the south of the Yangtze River, with tiny words embroidered in the lower right corner - "I'm out."
