Shuhua

She is one of the four great beauties of Ning.

The other three are all legitimate daughters from respectable families. Even if they are all beauty and no substance, their status alone is enough to make them famous throughout the land.

But what about her? She is the daughter of a dance girl registered as a slave, an illegitimate daughter who barely matters in the inner household.

To stand alongside them, she needs beauty, talent, skill, and cunning.

Do not demand, in an indignant tone, to know why she treats you this way. If you feel wronged, do you think she is content to endure baseless contempt and humiliation because of her birth?

She is swept up in the power struggles of a chaotic age. When weariness overtakes her, she has sometimes mocked herself, wondering whether anyone would ever save a selfish woman like her.

Can she still remember that there really was a man in her life who once told her sincerely, “If you’re willing, I’ll leave everything behind and take you away. We’ll spend our lives loving each other.”