The Dagger in the Palace

The emperor's favourite consort has a rival for his attention, and the rival is the one surviving child of a family the favourite had wiped out. Years earlier the favourite, secure in the emperor's affection, did as she pleased at court, and when she accused a family of loyal officials of treason the accusation was enough to have the whole household condemned to death. There was no way to appeal. Before the end the family arranged, through a prince and a general, to get one daughter out alive. The daughter grows up under the general's name and enters the palace with the other candidates in a selection of consorts, meaning to settle with the favourite herself. She keeps a low profile and takes each step carefully, arranges to be where the emperor will pass, and catches his eye with a dance. When he begins to treat her as a stand-in for a consort of his who had died, she lets him, and she becomes one of his concubines. From there she competes with the favourite for his attention, and each trap the favourite lays for her she turns back, until the favourite has undone herself and is confined to the cold palace. When the daughter finally puts a dagger to her, the favourite tells her that the order against her family had not come from her alone.