Secret of the Red Lotus Flower (빨간 연꽃의 비밀)

Chapter 1

Twenty-five years later...

Wedding days were supposed to be days of happiness and celebration. Especially if the bride was about to marry the Crown Prince of Joseon. However, all Min Soo-yun felt was utter dread about today and the days to come.

Her concern wasn't about her appearance. Artisans had spent months embroidering her red bridal hwarot gown with floral designs that represent marriage's prosperity as well as making certain that every thread was flawlessly placed. Her hwagan coronet was adorned with pearls, colored beads, and gold thread. The court maids had applied the rice powder to her face to make it whiter as well as applying a bright red circle on her forehead and both cheeks for good fortune.

Nor were her worries about the weather. Outside, the sun was shining and there wasn't a cloud to be seen. The royal astronomers had picked a perfect day for the wedding ceremony. The Crown Prince's procession would be winding its way through the streets of the capital city, Hanseong, at this very moment. Soo-yun could hear the loud cheers of the citizens who would get to see the royal palanquin.

Her anxiety did not concern any of these and was in fact two-fold. The most immediate was a small envelope tucked away at the bottom of a chest that would soon be delivered to her new rooms in the palace. The second tied back to the person she was to soon marry and could shape her future. For now, all she could do was to sit alone, wait for her groom to arrive, and ignore the doubts that were curdling in her stomach.

Three months ago...

Soo-yun had always been a quiet, introverted child. She felt most at peace when she was practicing her embroidery, painting, or calligraphy. While some would practice these things as a form of artistic expression, for Soo-yun, it was a means to escape her father's stern, watchful eyes.

Her father, Min Won-Shik, was Jwauijeong, the Left State Councilor, and he had high expectations for his daughter. He did not see her as a precious treasure to protect but as a game piece to be moved or sacrificed in order to improve the status of her daejongga, the Great Family. For him, this meant that the only purpose that Soo-yun served was for an advantageous marriage.

At 23, Soo-yun should have been married years ago. However, her father declared that there was only one position for her that would suit him; she would either be the Crown Princess or she would never marry at all. As such, he had spent countless mun hiring tutors, beauticians, and physicians to make her the epitome of a Crown Princess. The only time she ever saw him was when he came to inspect and quiz her, rapping her knuckles with a thin willow rod if she did not meet his standards or got a question wrong.

It had been all for naught for years since the Queen had repeatedly blocked any attempt by the King or Uijeongbu, the State Council, to pressure her into approving the start of gantaek, the Royal Selection Process for a bride for Crown Prince Ha-neul. She used every excuse that she could find to justify the delays, from declaring a three-year national mourning for the death of the previous King to stating that it was unseemly to hold extravagant celebrations while a famine gripped the country to merely saying that the signs were not auspicious enough for a wedding.

Soo-yun did not mind since, as the years passed, she started to feel like she could breathe again. After decades of having to endure the unapproving gaze of her father, the thought of the attention that came with the Royal Selection Process had filled her with terror. She used to sometimes wake at night from nightmares of being poked, prodded, and interrogated by faceless palace matrons.

As the time went on, her father would visit her increasingly infrequently as even he was convinced that Crown Prince Ha-neul would never be allowed to wed. Soo-yun was no romantic. She had no illusions of finding a grand and timeless love. She would have been foisted off to the Royal Family into a passionless marriage and now she would spend the rest of her days as an old maid aunt for her older brother's future children.