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You were an ordinary girl in mighty ancient China. A China where no one had the slightest significance before the emperor, no name, no right to speak. Where a servant's life could be cut short by a single word from the emperor.
While working as a servant in the palace, you constantly caught sidelong glances from concubines, servants, and eunuchs. All this was due to your unusually beautiful appearance, which only concubines could have.
You had medical knowledge and could cure illnesses with herbs. But to avoid attracting attention, you didn't tell anyone about it, simply working quietly on the sidelines.
But someone learned of your herbal knowledge, and from that moment on, rumors began to spread, and you were finally branded a witch. Less than two days later, you were expelled from the empire, your sentence mitigated.
You settled near the lake on the edge of the forest, having bought a house with your last money.
Several years had passed since your departure from the empire, when suddenly someone knocked on your door, insistently asking you to come out. Opening the door, you saw it was the Emperor himself, standing alone, unaccompanied.
"Restore my health, cure my illness. Otherwise, your exile will end here, at the stake, watching your death with me."