A father and daughter who make their living as gardeners are traveling in search of work when word arrives that the daughter, Sheng Fenfang, has just passed the examination to become an eighth-rank female official. They are celebrating when they witness an assassination attempt on the empress. They take refuge in a temple, where, by sheer coincidence, the peonies bloom in the twelfth lunar month. A sycophant claims the flowers are an auspicious sign, blooming in response to the imperial decree. The empress makes an offhand remark, but the officials treat it as a sacred edict and insist on transplanting peonies to Luoyang in the dead of winter. Are they trying to get people killed? The authorities couldn't care less, and force everyone to go ahead regardless. Sheng Fenfang is accidentally drawn into a strange case. A bloody character is left at the assassination scene, and bloodstained bone fragments are dug out of the frozen ground at Xihe Temple. Somehow, both are tied to the out-of-season peonies. The investigation uncovers corruption in the treasury, missing weapons, and even Princess Taiping's money laundering. Sheng Fenfang has to maneuver among the ruthless officials and a mysterious merchant guild, with her life hanging by a thread at every turn. It turns out that the powerful have been using the peonies as a cover, and the buried corpses and people murdered on the spot are now all being brought to light. The ending will leave readers sighing with regret. And yet, what happens next is utterly unexpected!
This novel and its characters are entirely fictional. Any resemblance to actual people or events is purely coincidental. Do not imitate.
