Once the closest of sisters, they turned against each other in a ruthless struggle for the empress’s throne. At the time, Noble Consort Nan Fenghe was pregnant with the emperor’s child. Her “sister,” Xi Jinru, schemed with the Imperial Astronomical Bureau to stage an observation of the heavens and pin the baseless charge of being a demon consort who would bring ruin to the nation on Nan Fenghe. As a result, Nan Fenghe was tortured, suffered a miscarriage, and was gravely injured. She was sentenced to death.
At the moment of her execution, the emperor Gu Fengye’s elder brother returned. Gu Yichen, Prince of Chen, was known as a vicious, ruthless killer who had never applied himself to anything. He arrived in an enormous eight-horse carriage of carved sandalwood, just in time to witness the spectacle.
Memories of his mother’s fall from favor when he was a child stirred his sympathy for the discarded consort before him. He came up with a plan, claiming he wanted to turn her into a human swine. The empress was delighted by the idea. Meanwhile, the prince realized that his elder brother had become even more suspicious since ascending the throne, and that this could put him in danger. He therefore volunteered to go to the frontier and become the King of Northern Xinjiang, putting the emperor’s mind at ease. After returning to his residence, he managed to spirit the gravely wounded Nan Fenghe out of the capital of the Great Shun Empire. But when the empress’s spies uncovered the truth, they gave chase.
From then on, the two outsmarted the empress’s faction while wandering the world, heading ever north. Many things happened along the way, and Nan Fenghe gradually emerged from the gloom of palace life. She and Prince Chen began to develop a tender affection for each other...
