Eight years after the Great War, the world is now ruled by four kingdoms. On the surface, there is peace and prosperity. However, nothing is ever what it really seems. Each Emperor seeks power. Each ruler is searching for the key to winning over the others. Each one is looking for the unknown legendary strategist. Oh? And who am I? Don't mind me. I'm just a simple peasant girl. Why would I ever get involved in such boring matters? * * * * * Note: This is my own work, not a translation. Enjoy! (Thank you to MissNoir11 for the awesome cover!)

How can you lose something you never have? When your own mother poisons you to gain pity from others, how should you feel? Why was I, the youngest, being married off? How could I care about something that was never mine? WARNING! Viewer discretion advised: Story contains adult content that is unsuitable for children. NOTE from the writer: I'm an amateur writer so please overlook plot holes, grammar issues, or anything else a story is supposed to have. This is my original story so... as the saying goes "if you have nothing nice to say, don't say anything at all".

She was sold to a richer family, and then substituted their daughter to be a palace servant candidate at 15. As news spread fast like the wind, she knows that a palace servant's life is not easy. She wishes for release as soon as she enters the palace. A chameleon she wants to be, to blend in with the surroundings, attracting no attention. However, fate decides otherwise. As everyday passes, she begins to witness, one by one, the scheming yet melancholic lives of people in the palace. She wants to leave such a place, only to find out later that she can never escape the tight grasp of cruel destiny. This girl, her name is Jade Yeva/Yè Ān Yù. --- •Sequel: Princess In The Palace (can be read as a standalone) •Full summary in summary chapter. •This is actually a Historical Chinese-based story, with names tweaked into English to suit English readers too. Name translation will be provided at the end of chapters. ***HIGHEST #5 in Historical Fiction.

A mere girl of a common scholar class is swept from her peaceful life to something bigger. Now picked upon as a candidate for the second son of the emperor, she's thrown into a world of discord and trickery. Behind the illusion of a peaceful life, power struggles revolving around love and happiness are vital for survival. Nothing is simply easy and one must fight to make it to the top.

The palace is a graveyard of dreams and hope. It slowly lures you in with its mesmerizing beauty, giving silky promises of power and wealth. But as soon as you take a step into the mirage, the doors snap shut. Then you realize... The high palace walls are nothing more than a cage of bones. The peaceful lotus pool is simply a resting place for thousands of lost souls. And laughter and smiles are a weapon to kill you before you can even mutter a single word. When lucky, a remain or two may find its way out - a fragmented jade or two bloody teeth, a remembrance that this indeed was history. From her birth, she was chained by the invisible strings of fate. What was the palace but another prison? Her bargain was her freedom, and his bet was the future of the empire. He favored the land over her, so she chose herself over him. But when she finally had the chance to escape, she found that she couldn't. For her hands were spotted with crimson blood.