Novel Blurb:
Jiang Feixue was born in the palace's Yeting quarters. Though a princess, she was no different from the palace servants.
Her mother had been summoned to the emperor's bed while he was drunk. When he awoke, he remembered nothing.
Even when he later made a token effort to have her registered with the Imperial Clan Court and entered into the family records,
her mother's status as an animal tamer made the emperor feel insulted whenever he saw her. He left her to grow up in Yeting, paying her no mind.
The imperial family first remembered her when the Zheng family of Fufeng was convicted of a crime and demoted from duke to marquis. Yet they still had a marriage pact with the royal house, arranged by their ancestors, so they married her off to them.
The imperial family remembered her a second time when the realm lay in ruins and the dynasty was on the brink of collapse. None of the imperial clan's young men wanted to become the ruler of a fallen kingdom, so they brought her back and enthroned her.
*
When Jiang Feixue left Fufeng Commandery, snow blanketed the land and the north wind howled.
At first, she asked someone to deliver a letter begging for help to Zheng Li in Jianye. But even as her kinsmen urged her to leave, no reply came. She had no choice but to entrust someone with a letter of divorce as well.
He had asked her for it two years earlier. She had kept putting it off, stubbornly staying in the Zheng family's ancestral home in Fufeng, still hoping he might return one day. Instead of him, she saw the entire Zheng clan migrate south. By the time she learned they had raised troops in the south and were ready to rebel against her country, it was too late.
When the carriage reached Chang'an's city gates, she lifted the curtain and looked at the leaden sky. The closer they came to the imperial palace, the gloomier it grew.
Once, she had thought she had escaped these palace walls and glimpsed the spring sunshine.
She lowered the curtain and sat upright, like a clay statue of a bodhisattva.
Suddenly, hoofbeats hurried up outside. Someone spoke to her through the curtain:
"Your handwriting has improved quite a bit."
The clay figure said nothing.
"I'm the one who taught you to write."
He had to keep going.
"If Your Highness doesn't mind, I could try teaching you a little more about governing the realm."
*
The imperial house declined, and the lords rose up on every side.
Zheng Li had been unable to bear seeing Jiang Feixue torn between her country and her family. He also could not guarantee her complete safety. He could give her nothing but freedom.
If parting offered no way to survive, they might as well face the danger together and try again.
From this day on, wherever Your Majesty's banners point, I shall charge into battle.
Note:
The final book in the Empress series. Both leads are each other's first and only.
The dynasty is in its final days. Their romance is angst-free, but the plot is full of heartbreak.
Theme: A tall pine lies trapped in a ravine, battered by wind and frost. When its time comes, it will stand firm and support the great hall.
