Love Amidst Intrigue: The Romance of Yehe-Nara Meiying

Prologue

A Clouds float like works of art;

Stars shoot with grief at heart.

Across the Milky Way the Cowherd meets the Maid.

~~~

When autumn's Golden Wind embraces Dew of Jade,

All the love scenes on earth, however many, fade.

~~~

Their tender love flows like a stream;

This happy date seems but a dream.

Can they bear a separate homeward way?

~~~

If love between both sides can last for aye,

Why need they stay together night and day?

Immortals at the Magpie Bridge by Qin Guan

The year was 1730 in the seventh month when Yehe-Nara Meiying entered the palace at age fifteen for the concubine selection for the Fourth Prince of Emperor Yongzheng, Hongli. Daughter of the Head of the Yehe Nara clan and Minister of Justice, Baoshou, and his primary consort Wanxiu of the Ula-Nara Clan, she was an early favorite to be accepted into the young prince's household as she was favored by the current emperor after helping him with getting more grain to the population. She was childhood friends with Older Sister Qingying as a cousin through her mother, who was the younger sister of Na'erbu and Empress Yixiu. The two girls were like sisters as they did everything together along with their personal maids A'Ruo and Suyuan.

When Older Sister was selected as Fourth Prince's second wife in 1728, Meiying was ecstatic for her cousin. Though she wasn't a fan of the Gao concubine, Xiyue, as she was an arrogant girl who expected everything to be handed to her. Fuca Langhua, the main wife, was a tad too boring and proper, but she felt that she was hiding a shrewdness under that exterior. The Korean concubine Jin Yuyan arrived a year afterward, along with Chen Wanyin and Huang Qiying joining the household after seducing her mistress' husband. Then a year after that entered Su Lüyun and Keliyete Hailan, and with both, she became fast friends.

After she turned fourteen, unknown to her, the Fourth Prince had been watching her as she visited her cousin and friends. He became attracted to the budding beauty, entranced by her smile, and started sending her poetry and gifts under a pseudonym to hide his identity from her and her parents till the selection next year. During this time, Hongli became a bit sullen at the fact he hadn't had any children, and he expressed his wish that she would give him one through his letters after they married. She knew nature had its course and never made that promise to herself if they did end up married by chance. She didn't know who was sending her these gifts and letters, and didn't have high hopes that she would ever meet them either.