In the height of summer, cicadas chirred, lotus blossoms filled the air with fragrance, and chilled melons and plums were the perfect treat.
Shen Qingqing discovered a peculiar man.
She merely coveted the thriving lotus pond outside the royal estate, but accidentally "fished up" the impoverished prince within, as cool and refined as jade.
From then on, her little business took a very different turn.
The prince complained that her lotus pods weren't sweet enough one day, then that her lotus blossoms weren't fragrant enough the next. The day after, he asked her to develop some unheard-of lotus fragrance.
He paid well, but his requests were truly bizarre.
Shen Qingqing felt the heavy silver in her purse, looked at his handsome face, and gritted her teeth as she put up with it.
After all, he was paying her so much!
It wasn't until she accidentally entered his study that she learned the truth.
The entire room was hung with portraits of her.
Picking lotus flowers, rowing a boat, smiling, looking angry...
His usually respectful old servant was murmuring, "Your Highness, it's time to return to the capital and contend for the throne."
A little scene:
The new emperor ascends the throne.
People say that His Majesty has a beloved woman from Jiangnan in his heart, and that he has searched the land for master craftsmen, all for the sake of a single lotus fragrance.
When the imperial procession heads south, iron cavalry tramples Jinling.
Now the supreme ruler of the realm, he corners her amid the lotus roots before all eyes.
"Does our business deal from back then still stand?"
Shen Qingqing raises her eyes and looks at the grand procession of vermilion betrothal gifts behind him, smiling sweetly.
"It does. But times have changed. My price is now more than a million times what it was back then."
(2025.11.12)
Theme: Cherish the present
