When Song Jinghe, the third daughter of the Song family, was thirteen, a Taoist priest's false accusations got her sent away to live at an estate for three years. When she finally returned home, she learned that the household was now run by her father's concubine, Aunt Liu.
Her father doted on his concubine and neglected his wife, earning the grandmother's disgust. Her eldest brother was thrown from his horse in a plot against him, and her elder sister was humiliated by her husband's family. Every one of these misfortunes was Aunt Liu's doing.
After Jinghe returned, her mother still treated her as coldly as ever. Just as she was about to be struck from the family register, an imperial edict arrived and broke the deadlock.
At the imperial horse grounds, she met Shen Huaiyuan, the Minister of the Court of Judicial Review. To avenge the murder of her mother and the ruin of her siblings, she married him, using her position as his wife to befriend the noblewomen of the capital and pursue her revenge.
She never expected that the royal family would also be caught up in it all.
The game appears calm on the surface, but beneath it lurks deadly danger.
This is a story of how a woman in an age when men favored their concubines over their wives can stand on her own, stay strong, disregard society's judgment, and dare to live as herself.
As the old saying goes, a woman is a woman before she becomes a wife. She must not be trapped by love or endangered within four walls, but should stand firmly on her own.
Women can do business and hold office. A woman's virtue is not limited to managing the inner household or serving her husband's family.
Women, too, can be capable in this world.
Marriage first, love later! Love grows over time! Everyone is clever! Scheming and manipulation! A blood feud!
Angst with a touch of sweetness. Read with care!
It's really beautiful. The later stage was very enjoyable, that is to say, not cowardly at all.