We fell in love as children and promised each other a lifetime together, then entered the palace walls side by side. Trouble stirred in the inner palace, and schemes came one after another. The affection we once shared was slowly worn away by the struggle for power. The emperor's thoughts were impossible to read, and suspicion and distance kept growing, until even our beautiful memories were shrouded in dust. I held fast to my principles and faced every challenge with composure, enduring countless open attacks and hidden plots, and tasting the full bitterness of love and loss. I came to see that beneath imperial power, pure devotion could not survive. A lifetime of love was ultimately poured into a running stream. After decades of rising and falling within the palace, I am no longer the person I was at the beginning. All that remains is a wall of loneliness and the ruins of a shattered old dream.
