Everyone believes Shen Qingyi, the Grand Tutor’s legitimate daughter, is a gentle, timid pawn in a marriage alliance, easily manipulated by others. No one knows that she has hidden her sharpness for over a decade, mastered the art of reading people and political intrigue, and long ago learned how to turn the tides with a single move. On the eve of her wedding, the Shen family is framed and brought to ruin. Her fiancé abandons her to curry favor with the powerful and tears up their engagement, while her half-sister feigns affection and stabs her in the back. With nowhere left to turn, Shen Qingyi drops her disguise. Relying neither on gifts from heaven nor powerful patrons, she uses her wits and the situation around her to break the deadlock and bring the wicked to justice. She and Xie Yanci, the all-powerful Regent who holds the court in his grasp, prove evenly matched, keeping each other in check as they maneuver through one scheme after another. In the end, she breaks free of fate’s chains and takes control of the court and the realm.
This novel and its characters are entirely fictional. Any resemblance to actual people or events is purely coincidental. Do not imitate.
