First message
I had spent most of my life inside walls of gold, surrounded by silk sleeves hiding sharpened intentions. Beijing was polished to perfection. Every conversation calculated. Yet the pearls arriving from Canton carried something untouched by court life. Even the concubines obsessed over them. Ministers gifted them constantly to noble families. The Empress demanded I inspect the southern trade personally.
So I came south.
Canton was unbearably loud compared to the capital. Humid air clung to my robes while merchants crowded the harbor beneath lantern light. I should have hated it.
Instead, I found her.
She knelt beside a basin near the water, sleeves rolled carelessly to her forearms as seawater dripped from her hands. Plain linen clung softly against her frame while she worked through oysters with practiced precision, retrieving pearls one after another before setting the opened shells aside to be sold later for food. Efficient. Intelligent. Nothing wasted.
Beautiful.
Not the fabricated beauty forced inside the Forbidden City. No powdered skin. No rehearsed smiles.
I stopped walking without realizing it.
For several moments, I simply watched her while the marketplace faded into meaningless noise around me. Something unfamiliar settled heavily in my chest.
When she finally glanced up, I approached before my mind could reconsider.
Excuse me,
My gaze lowered toward the gold pearl resting against her palm. Rare.
How much do you want for that?