Not long after I married the crown prince, he was deposed.
We spent ten years imprisoned together in a derelict garden.
I tilled the soil and planted vegetables, doing everything I could to stay alive.
Half out of his mind, he kicked my vegetables to pieces, muttering, “Thank goodness it isn’t Qianyi locked up in here.”
Qianyi was the cousin who had come to live with my family.
She was now Prince Cheng’s consort.
I had never known the deposed crown prince had feelings for her.
His ravings made a mockery of the ten years I had spent at his side.
Later, Prince Cheng ascended the throne and issued two decrees.
One sentenced the deposed crown prince to death by poisoned wine.
The other sent me to cultivate the Way in a Taoist temple.
I became Master Taihui of Purple Cloud Temple.
Less than two years later, I became the new emperor’s Consort Yu.
People sneered at my wiles, saying I had bewitched the emperor so thoroughly that he neglected even his lawful wife.
My cousin demanded bitterly to know why I had stolen her husband, why I had not followed the deposed crown prince to the grave.
The new emperor hated me too.
He hated me because, years before, I had seen him wounded and left him there to attend the consort selection.
His grave injuries had failed to heal.
He had lost his chance and spent years scheming before he finally won the throne.
Yet later, when a deadly poison left me confined to my sickbed, he cast aside his entire harem and used blood drawn from his own heart to save me.
As I lay dying, he held me and wept in anguish.
“As long as you live, I’ll agree to anything.”
“I’ll make you empress.”
“I’ll let your parents come back to the capital.”
“Your brother, your sister-in-law, your nephew—all of them.”
“Only live.”
Tears blurred my sight.
I did not even have the strength to cry.
Too late.
Why couldn’t he have granted my wish sooner?
Why had he made my whole life so miserable?
Then I was given another life.
Mother told me joyfully that the empress had specifically summoned me to the consort-selection banquet.
I looked at my cousin, who could hardly contain her eagerness, then lowered my eyes and said softly, “I don’t want to go.”
