The Eunuch and the Demon Consort

Su Yuanyin was framed as soon as she entered the palace and banished to the Cold Palace.

Seeking a way out to protect her late elder sister's orphaned child, she went to ask Zhu Yan, the powerful Chief Eunuch, for help. But after waiting for ages, she didn't even get to see him. All she got was a distant, indifferent reply:

"Your Ladyship, it's late. You should go back."

*

When they met again, she'd used her wiles to get her name called, and was wrapped in silk bedding and carried to the imperial bed. But when she opened her eyes, the man before her wasn't the aging emperor. It was a devastatingly handsome and familiar face.

Zhu Yan's pale, cool hand lightly gripped her chin. His voice was still low, but no longer indifferent:

"Once wasn't enough, Your Ladyship? Couldn't you ask a few more times?"

Beyond the mother-of-pearl screen, the emperor was roaring in fury.

Su Yuanyin listened for a moment, then simply said, "Someone's here."

Zhu Yan smiled. "Then let him hear how Your Ladyship begs me."

Later, everyone said a wicked consort had come to the palace, a modern-day Daji, a calamity blotting out the sun.

That nineteen-year-old Su Yuanyin was summoned day after day, tiring out the emperor, who was well past forty, until he could no longer hold court.

No one knew that the only man entangled with Su Yuanyin on the imperial bed, day after day, was the powerful eunuch Zhu Yan.

*

Not a single official in the court knew why the treacherous eunuch Zhu Yan was supporting the Fourth Prince's claim to the throne.

But the Fourth Prince knew.

One late night, watching Zhu Yan diligently teach him how to handle the memorials, he hesitantly asked, "Chief Eunuch, why are you so good to me?"

Looking at Su Yuanyin as she embroidered, Zhu Yan smiled and replied, "Because the little girl who grew up on my back wants me to be good to you."

Theme: A young heart falls in love, and the two become better together