He Wanted My Body, Then He Wanted My Heart

A Wu was breathtakingly beautiful. So beautiful that the first time the Crown Prince saw her, he summoned her to his bedchamber. So beautiful that the Crown Princess slapped her in front of everyone, striking the face that had supposedly "seduced His Highness." So beautiful that she knelt by the bed all night, observing the rules, while the Crown Prince never even glanced at her. "What's the use of a pretty face?" The Crown Princess laughed as she pressed a foot against A Wu's forehead. "In the palace, a face is the least valuable thing of all." Kneeling on the cold brick floor, A Wu committed those words to memory. Later, when the Crown Prince ascended the throne, she was granted only the lowest rank of palace woman. The consorts mocked her as having "knelt her way to her rank," while the palace maids and eunuchs called her the "palace woman under the bed" behind her back. Even after being summoned to the emperor's bedchamber, she still had to kneel; every morning, she still had to serve. Scars layered upon scars across her knees. But A Wu refused to accept her fate. She learned to read, to understand people's hearts, and to make her moves on the chessboard of the imperial harem. Step by step, she climbed: palace woman, Answering Lady, Attendant, Noble Lady, Concubine, Consort, Imperial Noble Consort. The emperor's gaze changed too, from "she has a fine body" to "you do understand me," and finally to "A Wu, I can't live without you." But when she finally stood by his side, he discovered that the young girl who had once trembled beneath the bed and knelt before him would never kneel again. He gave her all the favor in the world, but all she wanted was to be herself again. It took her ten years to rise from the ground, and it took him ten years to fall completely to his knees. Breathtaking palace maid x aloof emperor | From humble beginnings to awakening | I made you fall in love with me through my own efforts, and I can make you lose me the same way | Happy ending