Pluck the Flower from the High Peak

In the twentieth year of Jinghe, the emperor of Great Liang suddenly died without an heir.

That night, a squad of brocade-clad guards in flying-fish uniforms rode straight to a villa outside the capital.

Confined in the villa was Xiao Wan, the emperor's daughter by a condemned consort, a princess whose life hung by a thread.

Perhaps sensing what was coming, when the guards smashed open the villa's gate, Xiao Wan fell to her knees, tears streaming down her face as she begged them to spare her life.

Outside, heavy snow swirled through the air. A young man in a black cloak and bamboo hat approached through the snow.

Once inside, he removed his hat. His otherworldly beauty shone like a luminous pearl, filling the room with a clear, radiant glow.

He looked down at Xiao Wan, who was sobbing uncontrollably, and told her his name was Xie Heng, the chief chancellor of Great Liang.

He also told her he had come to escort her to become the emperor of Great Liang.

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Xie Heng was a prodigy who had placed third in the palace examination as a youth. At just twenty-three, he became Great Liang's chief chancellor. In his two years in office, he pushed through iron-fisted reforms and became a powerful minister feared by all.

Then, just as fate would have it, the emperor died without a son. With the throne about to pass to a collateral branch of the royal family and his reforms on the verge of going to waste, Xie Heng turned his attention to Princess Xiao Wan, imprisoned outside the palace, whose mother had been condemned.

He took a desperate gamble: he would have Xiao Wan disguise herself as a man and become the emperor of Great Liang. Out of gratitude for the late emperor's patronage, he planned to wait until Xiao Wan became pregnant and gave birth to an heir of the late emperor's blood, then have her die suddenly and install the young prince on the throne. That way, the throne would remain in the late emperor's line.

Everything went smoothly. A month later, Xiao Wan ascended the throne.

Xie Heng watched the young emperor tremble nervously on the Golden Throne and thought only that once she gave birth to a prince, he would have her die suddenly.

But Xiao Wan, whose outward appearance was timid and useless, sat on the dragon throne with her hand resting on its cold seat. She acted uneasy, but inwardly she was laughing. She told herself, “Now that I've taken this seat, I'm never giving it up.”

She watched the handsome, refined powerbroker below the Golden Hall, dressed in a crimson official robe embroidered with a crane and girded with a jade belt. She thought to herself, “The chief chancellor's slender waist, made to be bent.”

Theme: A lofty flower descends from its pedestal