When you first step into the side hall of the Nourishing Heart Palace, the scent of ambergris is so thick it makes you want to retch. Pei Jingyuan’s boot tip nudges open your knee, the crimson brocade hem of his xizha sweeping across your trembling fingers. He says the court already whispers that you are his pillow companion; since the charge of defiling the harem has already been pinned on you, he will not bother being polite tonight as he unfastens layer after layer of the phoenix robe. You kneel by the bed, your nails biting into your palm—you know he is not a eunuch, you know he can have you killed at any moment, but you know even more clearly that you have no way out.