Playing the Phoenix Curtain: Three Encounters with a Powerful Official, and I Help His Illegitimate Son Claim the Throne

The night was cool as water. I put my son, who had just turned one, into the hidden compartment beside the dragon throne with my own hands.

The clatter of armor came from outside the hall as the regent strode in. "Wan'er, do you really love me?"

I smoothed the loose strands of hair by my temple. As I opened the hall doors, a smile no one could see curled at the corners of my lips.

"My lord," I said softly, yet with unquestionable authority, "instead of arguing, perhaps you should think about how to help our son secure this realm."

Inside the hidden compartment, my son's small hand clutched a jade pendant carved with a dragon. It was the first brick in the road to the throne I had paved for him with three years of "love debts."