FL is a former palace maid turned imperial concubine turned minister’s wife. She was once the ML’s personal maid, and during their times of hardship together, they developed feelings of kinship and familial closeness. Later on, this turned to romance on FL’s part, and we’ll also come to know it was mutual later on. FL wasn’t aware that ML didn’t think himself in love with her and embraced him with her whole heart. She endured hardship in the imperial harem while he had to balance the court and the harem as a weak Emperor with powerful ministers. During this time, there was a powerful consort in the palace who often targeted FL because of her exclusive favor. Even so, FL endured all her misfortunes that stemmed from ML because of love. She gave birth to a son for them and loved him very much until she found out about the ML’s beloved.

Before ML got involved with FL, he had feelings for a minister’s daughter but never dared to marry her for fear that she would be targeted in the harem. Later on, he promised her father that he would make her his Empress if her father helped him fight for power. It’s implied that while ML did truly have feelings for this girl, they were also tainted by interests because being close with her also meant being close to her family’s power.

At the height of the power-struggles, the jealous powerful consort targeted FL and made her mute and physically disabled through poison and torture. After the dust settled, the trouble-makers were dealt but the damage was irreversible. The now-powerful ML fulfilled his promise to marry the 2nd ML but couldn’t bring himself to touch her. At first, he thought it was because of guilt for basically causing FL’s pain, but later on we learn it’s because he was in love with her.

Upon finding that ML didn’t love her the way she expected, FL depaired and became disillusioned with her love for him. She begged to leave the palace, and because ML felt so guilty and believed that he still loved the 2nd FL, he felt it wasn’t fair to trap an innocent ex-lover in the palace. FL hated him so much at that time that she hated their son too and never allowed him to meet her. After leaving the palace, she met a new love and left for his ancestral home so she could be far from the people she now hated the most.

The story starts in the 5th year after she left the palace. Now, FL had established a firm foothold in the ML2’s home. The in-laws were easy-going and generous, and the husband was warm, loving, and dependable. There were no pesky concubines to trouble her, but there were also no children to pass the time with.

I’ve forgotten why they came to the capital since it’s been more than a year since I read this, but during this time, FL took the opportunity to see her son again. After healing and finding someone she could trust to safeguard her heart better, she was no longer so hateful and bitter towards the son she once loved.

The story opens with her meeting the Empress after being called for an audience, and the Empress offers to help her find better doctors for her throat and legs (she’s mute and walks with a limp because it causes her great pain). FL keeps things curt and makes it clear she’s not interested in staying in the capital. After she leaves, the Empress bitterly laments the turns of fate and complains about ML’s treatment of her. She resents being made the nominal mother of ML’s only child because she feels that she is being taken advantage of. ML used her family and then gave her an empty Empress position, ignoring their past feelings and refusing to even give her the chance to have her own child. Now, his child with a mere maid was considered a legitimate prince just because he was written under her name in the genealogy. The child was even made Crown Prince, strongly signaling to the world that this is the heir he is placing all his hopes on. The Empress will either be divorced or die some time in the middle of the novel. I don’t remember the specifics but it’s not important.

After leaving the palace, the CP asks for an audience with FL. He’s still a child by modern standards but I can’t remember how old. He tentative approaches his mother and impresses her with her usage of sign language, but she still can’t bring herself to love him with the same tenacity as the past. During his visit, the servants bring some snacks over and he’s delighted to find that they’re his favorites. He felt that his mother still cared for him and wanted to get close again. In reality, it was his stepfather who sent them over after learning about his preferences from passing remarks made by FL in the past. ML2 hopes to ease the relationship between the two out of pity for the child and in hopes that he will always have feelings for his mother and protect her in the future. FL realizes what her husband had done, but keeps quiet because she can’t bear to see her son disappointed. Her son tries to stay for dinner, but FL refuses, fearing that it would displease his nominal mother and make his life harder.

Unbeknownst to her, the CP actually lives in luxury and has the first pick of everything. His father loves him above all and only put him under the Empress’s name to secure his place and protect him. In reality, he doesn’t even have to meet the person the world considers his mother. The CP senses her alienation and tactfully retreats, but his feelings are also hurt.

Back in the palace, ML watches everything happen from afar and summons his son to ask about FL. The son is bitter and internally blames his father for his poor relationship with his mother, feeling that he had been implicated by him. At this time, ML has finally come to terms with his true feelings, but it’s too late. He regrets letting FL go but can’t stand the thought of her hating him to the point of death back then. Even now, he doesn’t dare to force her back for fear that she would always long for her 2nd husband and never be with him fully.

Some more stuff happen and ML manages to see FL a few more times. There are a few scares where he considers trapping FL in the palace but giving up in the end, hoping he would never sink to the bottom in her eyes. Before she leaves, he tries to offer himself to her without asking for a status. He tells her she doesn’t have to leave her husband, and that he won’t tell anyone else, but she refuses point blank and tells him to respect himself. They part on bad terms, and ML hatefully wishes for something to go wrong in her new marriage.

Back home, FL settles into peace and comfort again. ML is still unresigned to having nothing to do with her, so he maintains spies around their house. At some point, she and her husband sleep in separate beds and this reaches the ML’s ears. He gets ahead of himself and is ecstatic with delusions of her leaving her new man and rekindling their relationship, only to have his hopes dashed when later news arrive to inform him she’s pregnant.

ML is furious and depressed at the revelation. He loves his son with FL a great deal because he’s the unbreakable bond between them and unique prior to this year. With this new child, FL could be said to be truly starting over completely. ML summons his son and demands to know if he knew this in advance (he did). ML is angry at him for not standing firmly on his side and tells him that her new child will dilute his weight in his mother’s heart, but his son tells him there’s no point in trying to make him hate his new sibling because he and his father don’t have the same stakes. FL could replace her man with a new one, but there is no reason why children must be replaced when one can love multiple at a time.

ML hysterically tells him that his mother will never come see him again. This year, she won’t come because of pregnancy. Next year, she won’t come because the baby is too young. In the years after that, she won’t come because she’s not relieved leaving her beloved child alone. In the end, the father and son duo part on bad terms, but ML’s words come true.

A few years later, ML finally finds the opportunity to leave the capital to go on an anonymous tour. He puts FL’s home city on the itinerary and gets to meet her one last time. In the years after that, his health declines and he spends his final days anxiously asking if a letter or person had arrived for him, having watched his son keep in touch with his mother all this time while he was ignored. The story ends on a BE for him, which I find to be just right. In the extra story, we see an if-line where the plots deviate at the point where FL comes back in the fifth year and he imprisons her in the palace. In this story, he ends up knowingly taking the poison she slowly feeds him, resigned to dying if it meant she could keep up a facade of being gentle and patient with him from time to time.