The sky was gray, and the atmosphere in the palace was heavy. The sun in the east had just risen and had not yet had the time to spill its warmth over the Qing Kingdom. It was swallowed by dark clouds that came out of nowhere. The red light immediately appeared dim. The sky also darkened.
In the back palace, the serving girls who rose to wash in the morning began to boil water. Odd-job eunuchs began to sweep the ground of dust with bamboo brooms taller than themselves. No one knew that had happened in the front palace. Just like the common people, each day they repeated their orders and lives. The nobles were not an exception. Although strange happenings in Jingdou these days had faintly entered their ears, those matters were only known to a limited number of people in the Qing Kingdom.
