A piece of Japanese incense

My real name is Tian Tian. My father, Tian Shengtai, was a doctor in the Ministry of Personnel when he was at the peak of his career. My sister, Tian Xin, has a unique skill and is good at embroidering flowers and birds. She is famous far and wide. Some people even spend a fortune just to get a pair of double-sided three-dimensional embroidery from my sister and present it to the current King Yun.

To celebrate the birthday of Concubine Xin, Prince Yun ordered his elder sister to embroider a 10-foot wide and 20-foot long auspicious crane screen within two months. The whole family thought it would be difficult to complete, but unexpectedly, the elder sister delivered the screen on time.

Concubine Xin was amazed at her sister's exquisite embroidery skills and her cleverness and ingenuity, so she specially invited her sister to attend the Mid-Autumn Palace Banquet to show her skills to the emperor.

However, misfortune often lies behind good fortune, and good fortune often lies behind misfortune.

My elder sister stole the show at the Mid-Autumn Palace Banquet and enjoyed a period of great fame, just as my father was promoted to Deputy Director of the Ministry of Personnel's Examination Department, and was responsible for participating in the imperial examinations held every three years for the first time.

After the imperial examination in spring of the following year, the emperor promoted my father to be Langzhong of the Ministry of Personnel, and I became engaged to Xu Jingke, the second son of my father's colleague, the Left Vice Minister of the Ministry of Rites.

However, the good times did not last long. Just over a month later, an actor ranked ninth because of "inconsistency between red and black", which triggered a scandal of cheating in the imperial examination. The candidates were filled with indignation, made a big fuss in the Examination Hall, and collectively went to the Confucian Temple to cry.

The incident became more and more serious, and alarmed the emperor. When the emperor heard about it, he was furious. In order to calm the situation, the emperor sent Prince Yun and the minister to investigate the case. In the end, a total of 100 people were punished, including five beheaded and three exiled. The number of people implicated was unprecedented, and the high official positions were also the highest in history. Among them, the chief examiner Bai Sanqing, who was over 75 years old, was a first-rank official in the court, a military minister, and a cabinet minister, and was also sent to the border.

When my house was searched, a box of gold and 100,000 taels of silver notes were found in my dowry box. Unfortunately, the Xu family was implicated and all their property was confiscated.

After my father was beheaded, my sister, brothers and sisters and I were all sold to the mansion of Marquis Jingwen. We were lucky that at least our family could be reunited, but we didn't expect that the nightmare would continue.

Later I learned that it was because the prince had seen my sister's outstanding performance at the Mid-Autumn Palace Banquet and was impressed by her and admired her talent, so he persuaded the young marquis to buy us, the members of the Tian family.

Fang Juexia was jealous of my sister because the prince looked at her differently, so he kept my sister by his side to serve him and tortured her secretly. At the very least, he would flog her, and at the worst, he would even force my sister to embroider for the prince in the snow in winter without wearing a cotton coat.

My sister endured everything for us. Until one day, the prince saw my sister climbing up a tree to steal loquats, and saw that she was skinny, so he asked Fang Juexia for my sister. Fang Juexia told Princess Yun on the grounds that the prince was playful. Princess Yun was furious and angrily accused my sister of being a disaster because of her beauty, and ordered Fang Juexia to deal with my sister as soon as possible.

Fang Juexia sold my sister to Qianyanfang, but my sister would rather die than obey, and tried to commit suicide several times. Fang Juexia then chopped off one of my younger brother's toes, and my sister had no choice but to give in. Unexpectedly, the prince asked about my sister's whereabouts a few months later. Fang Juexia was furious and ordered my sister to receive no less than 20 customers a day. He also dug out one of my younger brother's eyes and sent it to my sister, who put it in her room. Day and night, he witnessed my sister being humiliated.

Later, I followed Fang Juexia into the palace to study with him, and unexpectedly I ran into Xu Jingke, the second son of the former minister's family. Unfortunately, he had changed too.

From him, we learned that his family did not need to be implicated. It was Marquis Wanning who once asked to marry his sister as a concubine, but his sister was already engaged. Marquis Wanning was rejected and was unwilling to resign, so he used the fraud case to involve the Xu family, which caused the tragic death of his sister's husband and the stillbirth of their child.

In order to help him escape from her status as a slave, his sister gave herself to the Marquis of Wanning and became his concubine. However, his sister died from abuse within a year. His mother could not accept the death of her daughter and died of grief within a month.

In order to survive, he entered the palace and became a eunuch. However, he did not expect that life in the palace would be even more dangerous, and it would be difficult to survive, and he would be worried every day.

Until we met, we felt a bond between each other and life wasn't so hard.

Fang Juexia was still arrogant and domineering. In order to gain her trust and help my sister and siblings escape from suffering as soon as possible, I was willing to be beaten and scolded by her every day and endure endless grievances.

Fortunately, since I had received some education, I was able to be of use to her.

Xiao Ke and I agreed to meet in the corridor behind the study every three days to report to each other that we were safe.

However, that day, he told me that he would meet me after he had dealt with his affairs, but he did not show up.

I waited for more than half an hour, and worried that Fang Juexia would become suspicious, so I left a mark and returned to my residence.

That afternoon, Miss Zhi, who was supposed to be recuperating in her own yard, appeared in our yard safe and sound, and played with Fang Juexia in a lively manner.

That night, I returned to the corridor and found that the mark was still there. I asked the eunuchs about Xiao Ke's whereabouts on the pretext of helping Fang Juexia find a book, but they all shook their heads and said they didn't know.

I know his master has always been harsh on him. Most of his peers have no news, fearing that he would be punished by his master for not doing his job well...

I didn't sleep all night. Around the morning, I heard the sound of a door being bolted. I secretly checked and saw Miss Zhi coming out of the girls' school dressed in eunuch's clothes.

Because I was afraid that Fang Juexia wouldn't be able to find me when she woke up, I had to give up and didn't follow her.

In the next few days, there was still no news from Xiao Ke. I guess he was afraid that something had happened to him and was extremely angry.

I knew that Miss Zhi had suffered from severe eczema since childhood, and coincidentally, spring worms were found in Fang Juexia's yard.

I want to avenge Xiao Ke at all costs.

That day, the prince consort sent someone to deliver clothes to Miss Zhi. Yutuan took the clothes and put them into the house. I ordered the two little maids to chat outside their courtyard wall. Sure enough, Yutuan slipped out of the courtyard and eavesdropped with great interest.

I took the opportunity to take the clothes away. Miss Zhi was good at distinguishing scents. In order to cover up the vanilla scent of the spring insects, I steamed them in a fumigation basket all night. The next morning, I carefully placed the spring insects inside the clothes, climbed over the wall and put them back on the stone chair in Miss Zhi's yard.

Unexpectedly, after returning from Qingming Festival, I saw Xiao Ke again in the study. I was so happy.

After I had a hasty meeting with Xiao Ke, he told me that Miss Koreeda was afraid that he would be punished, so she asked His Majesty Xu to take care of him. After that, he actually fell into a coma for four days.

I knew that I had misunderstood Miss Zhi, and I was worried that something might happen to Miss Zhi because of me. But seeing that she was still full of energy, and thinking that her grandfather was a highly respected imperial physician, I couldn't help but feel relieved.

Fang Juexia and I came to Miss Zhi's courtyard, and Miss Zhi threatened Fang Juexia with the excuse of spring insects. Although Miss Zhi was kind-hearted, I knew this was an opportunity to make a contribution, so I exposed her lies in public. I saw a lot of people gathered at the door, so I sent Fang Juexia away on the grounds of damaging her reputation and affecting her image.

Unexpectedly, when I returned to the courtyard, I received a letter from outside the palace. I read the letter to Fang Juexia as usual. The letter mentioned that my sister had syphilis and had a miscarriage and was bleeding profusely. Fang Juexia was very happy and promised to send a doctor to treat my sister for my sake.

I was extremely anxious and went to discuss the matter with Xiao Ke. He finally decided to take me to see Miss Zhi.