CHAPTER 21: BUTTERFLIES.

Palace days without the Empress dowager felt lighter. Hao mei felt calm but she kept her guard up nevertheless because people in the imperial harem would take any chance to hurt her especially since the Empress Dowager's people still remained at court. Time continued to fly by and the seasons continued to change and soon it was winter again making it exactly one year since East Qing had been seized and she had been forced to marry into Qintong. The beginning of winter would also mark the first death anniversary of the previous Emperor. The Royal family of Qintong usually spent winters at their Ice Palace in the Northern provinces. They would set off before the snow came when the air began to change but due to the ancestral rites of the previous Emperor, they would depart after the first snowfall.