Claiming the Emperor's Heart [Palace Intrigue]

[A palace maid rises through the ranks in a palace-intrigue story. The heroine plays dumb while outsmarting everyone.]

At six years old, Yingtao went from being the daughter of an official to a convicted servant in the palace, exiled to a detached palace.

But Yingtao had two pieces of good fortune.

First, she was beautiful, with peach-blossom cheeks and almond-shaped eyes. When she moved, she swayed like a willow, inspiring pity. Second, she had once cast flirtatious glances at the princes, and the new emperor had been the one most taken with her.

But her luck was poor. When she returned to the palace, she stumbled into a struggle between the consorts. Consort Xian, wanting to spite someone, treated her like a pawn and assigned her to Lady Hu, whose kind face hid a jealous heart.

Yingtao immediately lowered her lovely face. She didn't dress to attract attention or act clever and ingratiating. When others picked on her, she could only smile foolishly at them.

At last, Lady Hu was forced to promote a palace maid to win the emperor's favor and hold on to it. In the end, she chose Yingtao, the "fool."

When Yingtao met the new emperor again and saw the delight in his eyes, she knew her gamble on returning to the palace had paid off.

*

Emperor Mingyuan remembered that there had been an especially charming little palace maid at the detached palace.

When he was still a prince, everyone had looked down on him because his birth mother came from a lowly background. Even the palace servants dared gossip about him behind his back. Only that little maid had spoken up to stop them.

The little maid had smiled at him, too. Her brows were like a crescent moon, and two affectionate dimples appeared beside her full, cherry-red lips. They seemed to hold two pools of spring water, stirring people's hearts with every graceful turn.

It was only beneath the red candles and golden bed curtains that Emperor Mingyuan discovered two more dimples, full of spring water, on the little maid's slender waist.

They nearly drowned him.

Later, the little maid suffered a terrible injustice. Her almond-shaped eyes were hazy with tears, and she bit her cherry-red lip, unwilling to say much.

Her jade-white skin, which Emperor Mingyuan had deliberately kept plump, bore frightening purple-blue marks.

Emperor Mingyuan was furious.

But the little maid reached out with her delicate hands and hooked them around his neck. Her breath carried a faint, lingering fragrance. All she said was that she did not want His Majesty to be put in a difficult position.

She soothed Emperor Mingyuan until his heart ached. "Whatever you want, I'll give it to you."

He failed to notice the slight curve at the corner of Yingtao's lips as she pouted in grievance.

*

Everyone knew that Emperor Mingyuan showed exceptional favor to a certain little palace maid.

He raised her rank and stood up for her, breaking the rule that palace maids could not occupy a principal consort's position.

He also overruled all objections to investigate an old case for her, helping her clear her status as a convicted servant and granting her the title of Consort Shu.

Yingtao had achieved her wish. Her clear, innocent almond eyes turned toward the phoenix throne.

The rank of Consort Shu was noble, but how could it compare to being empress?

Her path was only just beginning.

Cover character design: @Ting Yu Ge, Ye Wen Gu

Theme: None