In the twelfth year of the Jinghe era, on the day the new emperor Xiao Lin ascended the throne, he took the Chancellor's daughter as his empress and granted a general amnesty.
No matter how Wen Jia's skin was as smooth as jade or how beautiful she was, she was still only a palace maid. She should have bowed and thanked the emperor for letting her leave the palace. Instead, she ran through the howling snow all the way from the Yeting Palace to the front hall. They had been childhood friends for fifteen years, relying on each other for fifteen years. It shouldn't have ended like this.
She wanted an answer.
She was waiting for him to explain, too.
In the snow, the eunuchs laughed at her for overestimating herself.
The new empress pitied her for having no one and said she could be given a concubine's rank.
But the young emperor was full of himself. He no longer saw the boy who had once been downtrodden. He merely frowned and said, "The person you used to be wouldn't have made a scene over nothing."
Those words alone drew a line beneath their past.
Fortunately, life outside the palace wasn't difficult. She learned to read, painted, and set up a stall. Simple food and plain tea brought her peace, and the brilliant new top graduate of the imperial exams treated her wonderfully.
She thought it was time to find a home of her own.
But on her wedding night, when the veil was lifted, the person before her was Xiao Zike.
Armored Imperial Guards stood in close ranks on either side.
The young emperor, now holding all power in his hands, gently caressed her cheek. Darkness churned in his eyes, and his expression was grim. "Who gave you permission to marry? Jia'er, are you going to betray me too?"
Wen Jia smiled softly. "Why shouldn't I, Your Majesty?"
*
Everyone said the new emperor was cold and ruthless, willing to do anything to get what he wanted.
But Xiao Zike had never imagined Wen Jia would leave him.
They met in the Yeting Palace. Back then, he was the posthumous son of a deposed crown prince, struggling to survive from one day to the next. Everyone avoided him, but Wen Jia alone called him "Brother Changsheng" over and over, following him everywhere like his little shadow.
When he fell gravely ill, she braved the bitter winter cold to find doctors and medicine for him. When eunuchs bullied and humiliated him, she learned to be fierce and brash at a young age, driving away those who preyed on the weak.
When the late emperor fell gravely ill, with the court's future still uncertain, she was the one who held his hand and said, "Brother Changsheng, you'll surely live to a hundred, safe and sound."
He thought she would wait for him.
But how could she dare? How could she? How could she?
The emperor's favor and fury were both imperial grace. She became a caged bird.
Soft gauze curtains, fine clothes and crowns, and a cold, defiant stare.
That upstart top graduate in the court, the one who didn't know his place, kept submitting memorials day after day, demanding the return of his vanished wife.
He wanted to order the death of that smooth-talking swindler who had deceived her. But she, who cared nothing for the empress's throne, gripped a dagger and said, "If you want to kill him, you'll have to kill me first."
The young emperor clutched his wounded chest. His eyes were bloodshot and his face deathly pale, yet he laughed in fury. "Well, aren't you both just wonderful? You want to be a pair of lovers who die together, but I refuse to let you."
Theme: Cherish the people you love and hold dear
