Chapter 1

Chapter 1

The sandalwood incense in Cining Palace burned with a faint, lingering fragrance.

All was silent.

At last, the Empress Dowager spoke, her voice weak. “Child, what nonsense are you saying?”

“Since you and the Emperor have already been husband and wife in truth, and you have borne his children, you ought to have a proper title.”

“I know you have endured all these years because you feared putting me in a difficult position, but…”

She paused, then sighed. “I do not have many days left. It is time you thought for yourself.”

A sob caught in my throat.

I kowtowed again. “His Majesty has only the Noble Consort in his heart. Favoring this servant was merely a mistake made after drinking.”

“As for the two princes…”

My voice dropped. “They have been raised in the Noble Consort’s palace for so many years. They have long regarded her as their birth mother. They will not acknowledge me.”

Perhaps those words had struck a painful chord.

The Empress Dowager closed her eyes and said no more.

I, too, fell into sorrow.

Back then, when the Empress Dowager had still been a Beauty, she had not enjoyed much favor.

At the Emperor’s command, she had no choice but to send the seven-year-old Zhao Xun with her own hands to be raised by the Empress.

And there he remained for ten years.

Ten years later, the Empress passed away, and the Empress Dowager had finally endured long enough to be promoted to consort rank, finally able to raise her own child.

But Zhao Xun recognized only the Late Empress as his mother.

He refused to call her Mother. Instead, he addressed her coolly as Empress Dowager, his expression mocking.

“When this son was sick and helpless, it was always the Late Empress who cared for me.”

“Now that this son is grown and no longer needs a mother, you suddenly wish to take me back.”

“If you wanted this day, why did you abandon me then?”

The Empress Dowager was consumed with guilt.

She spent every ounce of strength she had to lift him into the position of Crown Prince.

After Zhao Xun ascended the throne, the Empress Dowager surrendered her power outright and withdrew to the inner palace.

Yet after all these years, the bond between mother and son had never truly mended.

The Empress Dowager sighed softly. “Forget it. You are a good child. You should not repeat my mistakes.”

“But Ah Tao, the wealth and glory of the imperial family-can you truly bear to give it up?”

I fell silent.

At seven, I was assigned to the Empress Dowager’s palace as a lowly maid responsible for sweeping and cleaning.

In the blink of an eye, twenty years had passed.

I had gone from a sweeping maid to the senior palace maid in charge of Cining Palace.

Even men as noble as princes had to address me respectfully as Aunt Shen when they saw me.

But when I saw Zhao Xun,

I still had to kneel obediently and let him do as he pleased.

The wealth and glory of the imperial family truly could bend a person’s spine and shatter their knees.

When I came back to myself, I said softly, “I can.”

“And the Emperor?”

I froze.

The Empress Dowager seemed to smile, then asked me again, “The Emperor-can you bear to give him up as well?”