Jiang Wanning appears at the Yangzhou Lantern Festival as a Persian dancer, and a mechanical puppet's theft of a snow fox fur cloak draws Xiao Jingheng's attention. The two face off in a secret chamber over a fragment of the Secret Record of Mountains and Rivers. During a stormy night escape from a burning house, the half tiger tally left behind by Jiang's father makes its first appearance. Xiao Jingheng uses an investigation into a grain-transport case to get close to Jiang Wanning, but at Taiye Lake he catches her meeting with the deposed crown prince. The mechanical chess game in the golden cage conceals a Xuanji cipher, while the writing on Jiang Wanning's hairpin reveals an escape route. Their ambiguous feelings begin to blossom amid their mutual testing. At her birthday banquet, Jiang Wanning publicly exposes evidence of the Grand Princess's treason, only for Xiao Jingheng to use the tiger tally to mobilize troops and surround her. Solving the mechanism of the Seven Treasures Board triggers an illusion of the late emperor's edict. The Chi-dragon pattern on a cloth stained with grape wine conceals a danger that devours life.
This novel and its characters are entirely fictional. Any resemblance to real people or events is purely coincidental. Do not imitate.
