Palace Shadows: The Diary of a Female Eunuch - The palace's undercurrents raged—where every threat hid an opportunity, and every opportunity bled d

The next day, the Eastern Palace lay in suffocating silence—71Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVaWCG85oZM
—but the unease in my bones screamed.

Chen Qing’er’s arrival wasn’t just a geopolitical tremor.

It was a blade pressed to the throat of my already precarious alliance with the Crown Prince.

I found him in his study at noon, the tension between us thicker than the incense smoke.

"Your Highness…" I kept my voice low. "Is General Chen truly here only to stabilize borders?"

A pause. Then, colder than winter stone:

"Her ambitions run deeper."

The admission slithered through me.

So he knew.

And still, he’d brought the viper into our nest.

That night, moonlight painted the courtyards silver when she found me—

—a shadow with a predator’s grace.

"Still clinging to your borrowed time?" Her laugh was a dagger’s edge. "The Prince’s favor is fickle. When he discards you…"

A step closer. The scent of steel and snow.

"I could be your sanctuary."

Sanctuary?

The word tasted like poisoned honey.

Her parting whisper haunted me back to my chambers:

"Survive, and you’ll hold the knife. Die, and you’re just another corpse no one remembers."

Then—

A voice through the window slit:

"She won’t… live to see dawn."

I lunged to the lattice—

Nothing but night and the echo of a death sentence.

ns216.73.216.57da2