Moonlight Over the Flourishing Tower

She was born into a farming family in Niushan Village, Licheng, Yunmeng Marsh, in the Great Zhou. She had no name.

Her grandmother called her a jinx, a worthless burden, and a bringer of bad luck. The villagers followed suit.

When she was eight, her own grandmother sold her to Spring Pavilion for three taels of silver.

From the lowest servant to a dancer, from Spring Pavilion to Ten-Thousand-Gold Pavilion, and then to Magnificent Pavilion, which catered exclusively to royalty and nobility, she spent thirteen years climbing a ladder others could not climb in three lifetimes.

The men who held power over all the realm thought she was their prey, never realizing they were the ones caught in her game.

Later, she stood atop the jade steps and made the most powerful men in the world bow before her.

And it all began with an eight-year-old farm girl who wanted enough to eat and to stop being beaten.