For fifteen years in the palace, she lived in fear every day.
She was the brush-holding eunuch of the Directorate of Ceremonial Affairs. People called her the Eastern Depot governor's loyal dog, and pretended to respectfully call her the "Junior Governor." Only she knew she was merely the governor's most trusted pawn, all because she was a woman.
Seizing power, whispering slander into the emperor's ear, eliminating rivals, murdering imperial relatives: she did all the dirty work for the governor.
She had thought she would end up as a pawn sacrificed to appease the furious masses, until the Twelfth Prince entered the palace and she saw a chance to escape like a cicada shedding its shell...
The late emperor died suddenly. At last, the ministers remembered that a Twelfth Prince was still living far away at the imperial mausoleum, guarding the tomb. And so he was hastily brought to the palace and hastily enthroned. His reign name was Guangshun.
At first, he thought he was nothing more than a stepping stone, destined to be "dead" once he had served his purpose. Then the imposing "Junior Governor" came before him, bowed low, and knelt at his feet, softly saying, "Your Majesty, please calm your anger. My master was once the late emperor. Now, my master is Your Majesty. My loyalty has never changed."
It turned out that even the most impregnable fortress could never keep out the wind. With that wind, he would grow into a great roc.
He relied on her and secretly loved her, promising to make her the highest-ranking subject in the realm, but she seemed entirely uninterested. Then, at the very moment he finally took power, he heard news of her death. Only when his confidant presented a portrait of her in court dress did he understand that he had merely been her stepping stone to escape. But by then, the stepping stone no longer wanted to be just a stepping stone...
A woman disguises herself as a man; a king loves, but the lady does not; palace and court power struggles; a thousand-mile pursuit of his wife.
Theme: Love should be between equals
