Palace maid Ling Xiao had a father who died young in her previous life, and a mother who favored sons over daughters.
She was sold into the palace as a maid while still very young. No one at home ever asked whether she was alive or dead. Instead, they counted on her meager monthly wages to support the family.
She refused to give in or accept her fate. With the money she painstakingly saved, she bribed a matron to let her serve the First Prince.
Just as everything seemed to be looking up, her resemblance to the emperor's beloved caused the imperial concubines to target her.
She was struck for scalding her hand while serving tea, and punished with kneeling for walking too quickly.
In the depths of winter, she was forced to kneel in the courtyard and scrub the floor until the flesh on her knees was bloody and raw.
To stop others from bullying her, she begged the chief eunuch by the emperor's side to help her win imperial favor.
The emperor liked talented women, so she worked desperately to learn Kunqu opera, horseback riding, archery, and poetry. Even when a zither string cut her fingers until they bled, she kept playing.
The emperor wanted her to be meek, so she hid all her feelings and greeted everyone with a smile. When he grew tired of her, she tried every way she could think of to keep him interested with something new.
Eventually, she rose to the position of Imperial Noble Consort and bore six children. She seemed to have won everything, but in truth, she had lost it all.
Her mother was executed because of her, the man she once loved died because of her, her children were taken away to be raised by other consorts, and no one in the palace treated her with genuine affection.
When she woke again, she had returned to the day the snow was falling thickly, at the moment the chief eunuch by the emperor's side helped her to her feet:
"Such a beautiful face. What a waste to be just a palace maid."
