A Burning Late Spring

Zhong Qing had been empress in her previous life. Framed by a favored concubine, she died in the Cold Palace.

Her soul did not disperse after death. She watched as the young prince she had once saved marched over fields of corpses to ascend the throne, then eliminated every villain who had harmed her.

Her soul continued to drift, watching him later give her a solemn burial in the imperial mausoleum, suspend court for a month, wear mourning clothes day and night, enshrine her tablet in the warm chamber of his palace, and kneel before it for a long, long time.

Then, by a twist of fate, she was reborn. Looking at her still-innocent and pure stepson, Zhong Qing vowed to treat him well.

But gradually, Zhong Qing noticed things were different from her previous life.

The Third Prince and his mother had shown her disrespect two days earlier. Two days later, the Third Prince got into a quarrel and broke his leg at the hunting grounds.

The Minister of Revenue, at odds with her maternal family, took the opportunity to impeach her for being an unworthy empress. Before long, he was exposed for corruption, and his whole family was implicated.

Even when the emperor went out of his way to cause trouble in her palace, he soon suffered poisoning from an elixir and was left half-paralyzed in bed.

Zhong Qing looked toward her stepson. He was as pure and obedient as ever, his lean, strong frame outlining the graceful beauty of a young man.

How could it be him? Zhong Qing laughed in spite of herself, thinking she was surely overthinking things.

Only when the emperor died and the new emperor ascended the throne did Zhong Qing feel that her hardships were finally over.

But a month after the late emperor's death, the edict naming her Empress Dowager still had not come. The palace attendants continued to serve her as respectfully as before and still addressed her as "Empress."

Even when Zhong Qing offered to move from Changqiu Palace to Ningshou Palace, she was told that Ningshou Palace was old and in disrepair, and could not yet be occupied.

Zhong Qing felt uneasy, but the new emperor was so dutiful toward her that she could find no fault with him.

He paid his respects every morning and evening without fail, and personally attended to her medicinal meals, shoes, and socks instead of leaving them to others.

He tasted her medicine first and cared for her in every way, always humble and deferential. The imperial authority he displayed before others vanished completely in her presence.

At last, unable to hold back any longer, on the Lantern Festival, as he carefully fed her tangyuan, she took hold of his wrist. "The emperor should find someone who understands him. You don't need to spend the festival with an old woman like me."

The young emperor curled his lips. "You're not old."

Zhong Qing looked at the young man before her. His former youthful awkwardness and slenderness were gone. He had grown into a man of radiant, breathtaking beauty, solemn as a god.

She sighed softly. "The Great Xia dynasty needs an emperor to continue the line, too."

He looked at her without speaking, then simply smiled.

In mid-May, as the early summer heat grew stifling, the empress lost her appetite and suffered chest tightness and dizziness. She took to her bed and soon began vomiting.

The emperor was deeply distressed. He personally attended her bedside, held her hand, and took her pulse. It was smooth and rapid, like rolling beads.

Theme: Love.