Smoke Over the Capital (Volume Two)

The cold years slipped through her fingers, and only then did she realize that all she had left behind in this era, which was never hers to begin with, were countless mistakes. The refined gentleman who danced with a sword beneath the moon and composed poetry among the shadows of fragrant blossoms, and the supreme emperor who looked down upon all under heaven and ruled the world, were both nothing more than fleeting passersby in her life... Every woman in the imperial harem is a book. You can see them, but that doesn't mean you can understand them. At first, they were all girls who entered the palace through the selection, carrying simple hopes. Many were innocent and kind, full of dreamy expectations. Yet in the end, they all descended step by step into an abyss. In the cold, lonely, sunless Forbidden City, they spun their cocoons and changed, but could never become butterflies. Instead, the thick cocoons they had woven trapped their youth and beauty, even destroying their lives. As an emperor, he had nothing but power over all under heaven. As his favored consort, she had all his love, yet could never get what she wanted. The concubines of the Forbidden City struggled amid love, power, desire, and hatred. Time and hardship left every one of them with silver in her hair, each sinking helplessly into her own sea of suffering. Theme: