The Beautiful Lord Consort

As the grandniece of the Empress Dowager, Zhu Huiyue, only daughter of General Zhuyuan Zhu Zhan, had been promised to the crown prince from childhood. She was to be his future crown princess.

After the Empress Dowager died, General Zhuyuan was implicated in Prince Wu's rebellion, and the entire household was convicted. The men and their families were exiled three thousand li, while unmarried women were sent to serve as palace slaves.

On the day the general's household was confiscated, the empress summoned Zhu Huiyue.

Calling her by her childhood name, the empress said, "A Ying, the crown prince is kindhearted. Remembering that you were betrothed to him as a child, he is willing to take you into his household as a concubine, so you can escape the hardships of slavery. Are you willing?"

Zhu Huiyue thought of the crown prince's usual coldness toward her and asked the empress, "If this guilty woman enters the palace as a servant, can she leave as a free person at the age of twenty-five?"

The empress nodded. "Those are the rules of the palace."

Zhu Huiyue kowtowed and said, "In reply to Your Majesty, this guilty woman would rather serve as a palace slave."

Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted a pair of blue dragon-patterned boots behind the screen.

The next day, Zhu Huiyue entered the palace and became a maid named Zi Ying in the Laundry Bureau, assigned specifically to wash the crown prince's clothes.

Zhu Huiyue wanted to cry. Why couldn't she escape the fate of serving that damn crown prince?

Li Ling had been engaged to Zhu Weiyue since childhood and knew she couldn't escape him, so he had never taken her seriously.

After something happened to the Zhu family, Zhu Weiyue could no longer become crown princess. Thinking of their many years of engagement, he planned to take her into his household as a concubine.

He never expected that she'd rather be a palace maid than enter his residence.

At first, he didn't think much of it. He figured she couldn't escape him even in the palace.

It wasn't until he realized that a palace maid named Zi Ying seemed to be flirting with a young guard that he began to panic.

A fallen noblewoman x a cold crown prince

Theme: Persevere and strive for self-improvement in the face of adversity