Schemes of a Beauty: Reduced to Dust

She was the emperor's favored consort, the beloved of a founding minister, and the white jasmine of a neighboring prince's dreams, whom he had sought countless times. That year, on the branches in the bitter cold, petals fell all across the ground, and palace upon palace, countless grand pavilions, came crashing down. Like a rootless duckweed, fate carried her drifting from place to place. Years later, who would dance that breathtaking dance above the splendid palace towers, and whom would she drag with her to the underworld, locked in an eternal struggle to the death?

This novel and its characters are entirely fictional. Any resemblance to real people or events is purely coincidental. Do not imitate.