In the tenth year of the Chengguang era of the Great Jing dynasty, Emperor Xiao Yan had no children.
In ten years, three grand selections had brought enough consorts into the palace to fill an entire street, yet not once had the palace heard a baby's cry.
At court, the words "adopt an heir" went from tentative suggestions to open demands. The Ministry of Rites' memorials grew ever thicker, while the children in Prince Yong's residence grew ever taller.
Gu Qingyuan, a modern medicinal cuisine chef, woke up as the orphaned daughter of the prefectural judge of Yunzhou.
Her father had died in office, and her clan uncle, finding her an eyesore, put her name on the selection register to make up the numbers.
She was the lowest-born and last-ranked girl in her cohort, even her silk flower was secondhand.
While the others entered the palace seeking favor, she only wanted to stay alive and, while she was at it, turn the Imperial Kitchen's bland dishes into something edible.
Who could have guessed that on the night she was summoned to the emperor's bed, a golden scroll would suddenly appear beside her pillow?
[The Qilin Pact is established. Incense serves as the catalyst, bloodline as the proof.]
[Each pregnancy grants a blessing. Blessings can be exchanged for miscarriage-prevention pills, detoxification talismans, and easy-birth pills.]
[May you have many children and many blessings.]
The day the imperial physicians knelt to announce the good news, the emperor, who had held back for ten years, laughed aloud before the entire court.
[I have an heir.]
Later, she had two children in three years and four in six, turning the vast imperial palace into her own family home.
Prince Yong clutched the memorial proposing an adopted heir until his knuckles turned white.
The Son of Heaven merely lowered his head and smoothed the hair the wind had tousled at her temples.
[Ah Yuan, someone will inherit my empire now.]
