An Na Tsui

It was only by pure happenstance that Cui Yi Meng caught the attention of the emperor that warm summer day. She had been out picking some herbs when the royal procession happened to cross her path, but even through a bowed head, the Tang Emperor could see what a beauty she was. Yi Meng had been a simple girl, the daughter of a lowly imperial physician, wanting for nothing more than a simple life, but fate had different plans for her.

She had barely had time to discuss her run in with her father when the Emperor had already demanded she enter his harem, forced to compete with dozens of other ladies all yearning for his affections. While many would have considered the Emperor’s immediate infatuation with her a blessing, Yi Meng would have preferred to be left alone. Nevertheless, the Emperor grew on her and by the time he was at his death bed, his gui fei was at his side, holding his hand as he took his last breath.

And with his last breath, he had taken Yi Meng’s safety with him.

No matter how high she had risen by his side, she was not his Empress, his official wife, and her sons were second to hers in the line of succession. The Emperor’s body was barely in the ground before the now Empress Dowager demanded the removal of all her previous competitors for the Emperor’s attention, especially his most beloved gui fei. It was only through her loyal sons, now Princes of their own principalities, that she was able to escape, hiding away and content to spend the rest of her days at monasteries and living her life as a nun.

Still, that wasn’t enough for the Empress Dowager and she continued her hunt, only satisfied when news of Cui Gui Fei having been chased off a cliff hit her ears. Yi Meng had done exactly that, not sure that she would survive the jump. A stranger happened upon her body and like that fateful day all those summers ago, her life changed once again. The stranger nursed her back to health and took pity on her plight, offering her a second chance at life–one outside the restricted palace walls and endless court politics. Yi Meng accepted, abandoning everything from her previous life with faith that her children had learned enough from her to thrive.

For over a thousand years, Yi Meng travelled the earth, learning everything she could about the world. All she saw was endless cruelty and the same mistakes being repeated again and again. From her place in the shadows, she couldn’t do much, but she did something. She rescued the few people she believed deserved a second chance and built another family, the motherly side of her never quite leaving even after death.

When she decided to settle down, she chose the New World, hoping that it wouldn’t repeat the mistakes of the past. Unfortunately, even with a chance to start over, humans never seemed to learn and after seeing the atrocities they were further capable of, Yi Meng abandoned her former name and with it, all the sympathy she had left for the inferior race. If she and her children were going to survive, they had to do it by force. She built her own empire off of the blood of those below her and her only care now is to leave a peaceful world for her own children, one they would never live in fear of.