When she opened her eyes, she had returned to the day of her coming-of-age ceremony, the very beginning of the trap her younger half-sister had tricked her into. In her previous life, she had trusted her own family, lost her birth mother's keepsakes, endured endless torment, and died with bitter regrets. Given another chance at life, she would never repeat the same mistakes. She concealed her strengths and planned every step carefully, tearing away her stepmother's mask of hypocrisy and exposing her half-sister's feigned helplessness. One by one, she dragged those who had harmed her into the mire. In the high-walled inner quarters, where hearts were treacherous, she protected herself and plotted amid hidden currents and flashes of steel, shielded the people she wished to protect, broke free of the constraints of the inner household, and forged a splendid path all her own.
This novel and its characters are entirely fictional. Any resemblance to actual people or events is purely coincidental. Do not imitate.
