The Willow by the Palace Wall

Why must the women in the imperial harem compete for the emperor’s favor? A heart-wrenching historical romance that burst onto the scene in 2019, winning 330,000 upvotes on Zhihu and three million plays on Ximalaya, and taking Bilibili and Xiaohongshu by storm! Countless readers recommend this unconventional palace-intrigue novel, a story that lingers long after you finish. With the lightest of touches, it captures everyone’s deepest regrets. It was May, when the locust blossoms were fragrant. I was fourteen, resting my chin in my hand and dozing in Yong'an Palace. That man’s laughter held a tenderness I couldn’t describe. “Are you really that sleepy?” I was only fourteen that year, young and in the prime of my life. It was the first time I had ever met someone like him. He fixed my hair and painted my brows, recited poems and sang songs for me, calling me “dear girl” at every turn. Did I really not fall for him, even a little? The emperor wrote to me every day: “He rode a bamboo hobbyhorse to visit, circling the well to play with green plums. We lived together in Changgan Lane, two children with nothing to hide.” But I wasn’t the childhood sweetheart who had grown up with him. How could that poem possibly have been meant for me?