After a long time of looking at the long halo of the moon, it looked like it was going to rain heavily tomorrow. Mohee, who sat under the eaves of the abandoned cold palace where no one came around at night, looked up at the sky. It was then that she realized that today was a full moon.

The wind swept past her and gave her chills and goosebumps without her realizing it. Hiding under the shadow of the eaves in the dark corner, she wiped away her wrinkled eyes with the tip of her skirt. Reflected in the moonlight, her eyes were smeared with tears.

Mohee is twenty-five this year. It had been 15 years since she had entered the palace.

It was a tough time. A woman, who was seven years older than her, eventually committed suicide by hanging, and Mohee wandered here and there because she had to die in the palace too once she entered it.

She didn’t have a strong support to pull her out, and because the first mistress took her own life, her relationship with family had also been cut off.

In the year of Qinan, her sickly mother had passed away, and her only brother, who had been in the palace for ten years, said that he wanted her to cut off ties with him, as she had no special position. This was because of the imperial court’s rule that a court lady without a position until the age of twenty-five will be forced to leave the palace. She had no choice but to nod her head like a fool to her brother, who had no sign of trusting their house to her after she left the palace.

The salary she received went to their mother’s medicine expenses and only a few pennies have remained for her.

She stared up at the moon at the end of the eaves and shed tears she had been holding back.

“There is nothing I can do about it.”

It had been unavoidable for her to enter the palace.

It was inevitable that there would be no position for her due to the wrong situation.

It was unavoidable to leave the palace at the age of 25.

The only good news is that if she left the palace, she would be given half a year’s worth of salary all at once. She had to find a way to make a living with it. Mohee was unfamiliar with life outside the palace. She had been living in the palace since she was little, so she didn’t know anything about the outside world.

It was said that even just standing still outside the Imperial Palace will result in you being cut down.

Whenever she thought about it, her shoulders shuddered.

Everything was scary. Those who remained made fun of her, as always. When an older court lady comes out of the palace, there were men who wanted to kidnap them and would be waiting in front of the gate, or they would also be deceived and lose all of their property.

She squatted, her knees bent and her hands on top of her feet, wiggling her fingers.

She was more scared because she knew what they said was not wrong. The court ladies were women of Emperor Moda. She heard that taking them was prevalent and was like a kind of play or bet for men outside the palace. Her mother also told her to be careful of them.

When she sighed loudly, a commotion broke out outside of the cold palace. It was more visible in a dark place as she watched people moving around in a hurry. She looked at the sky once again, saw the smoke, and then trembled again.

It wasn’t unfamiliar to see the royal palace officials and royal guards running around on a full moon day.

After all, a mad man lives in the imperial palace.