Heng Siying was the second daughter of the Minister of Hubu, and she was just an inconspicuous talent when she entered the palace. She neither competed for favor nor clung to her. She only did one thing - she picked up a child squatting on the dirt and painting peonies under the most remote locust tree in the harem. The child was the second prince Su Ting. His biological mother died young and no one cared about him, like a grass in the cracks of the palace wall that no one had watered.
The women in the harem compete for the emperor's favor, while Heng Siying competes for a period of "take your time". She spent five years teaching the child to read, calligraphy, raise his head, and walk until he was old enough to stand in the court and speak for himself. She stood three steps behind him, not too far but not too close, just where he could see her when he turned around. The emperor gradually got used to taking a detour every day and passing by the entrance of Zhenyang Palace, just to see her shadow reflected on the window paper; the queen regarded her as "a person who can be entrusted to her" on the sickbed; Concubine Xi said to her "you picked it up well" after letting go of her obsession.
This is a story about "raising" - raising a child to grow up, raising a patient to the bone, and developing a relationship that neither crosses the line nor goes too far. There are people fighting over the jade steps, and there are people taking root below the jade steps. And she spent ten years to bring that child squatting on the dirt to the top of thousands of people.
