Chasing the Splendor of Youth

The year I entered the palace with the Grand Princess, I was only five, not yet old enough to wear my hair in a child’s knot. I moved into Changxin Palace and was bestowed the title of Ronghua. From then on, I became the future bride of the young emperor, Jiang Zhixu.

Back then, I knew nothing of the Book of Rites, the Six Arts, or the Eight Refined Skills. I knew neither the Book of Songs nor the Analects. I didn’t even understand where fate would lead me, what heavy chains I would bear, or what storms of blood and fire lay ahead.

Only much later, when I was old and my hair had turned white, did I look back on a life of love, hatred, and upheaval and glimpse fate’s loneliness and hardship. Later generations often praise me, saying I never wasted my life. But who could know that from the moment I lost my family and my beloved passed away, the brilliance in my heart had already faded?

Thankfully, the one thing I never failed was the people’s peace and well-being, and the restoration of a golden age. Jiang Zhixu, the wish you held in your heart, I finally got to see it come true…