A sickly, arrogant, unhinged empress × a dissolute, steadfast, cold-hearted general
The title means “to conceal one’s true nature.”
From the moment Xiao Han was born, people told her she was destined to become emperor. So she hid her identity and carefully played the part of a prince, winning countless honors for her mother’s clan. But a false identity could only stay hidden for so long. The day she was exposed, she was stripped naked and examined in front of a crowd of eunuchs and palace maids.
Deceiving the emperor was a capital offense. She thought she would be sentenced to death in the palace, bringing her life to an end. But the Northern Barbarians suddenly besieged the capital, and Great Qi was in peril. Chaos broke out in the palace, the emperor fled, and no one remembered whether she was alive or dead. She could have escaped in the confusion, but instead she shouldered the dynasty’s last shred of dignity, took up a blade taller than she was, and stood on the city walls to defend the capital to the death.
She had saved the dynasty from disaster. Surely she would be forgiven? No. To cover up the scandal, the emperor still ordered her to drink a cup of poison. With no other choice, Xiao Han faked her death and escaped. When she returned, she declared that she would become the only empress in the history of the dynasty.
But when she stripped and knelt before that dissolute young man to win the support of the northern army, she sealed her place in the history books as a woman with a shameful past.
“If the future ruler was once nothing more than your plaything, is that a big enough bargaining chip?”
“A beauty and an empire cannot both be yours. But once I become empress, Xiao Jianxin, I’ll have both you and the world.”
When I read The Marriage, I always found the character Xiao Han very attractive, and I have been waiting for this book to be updated.
It's a really great book. I've been waiting for it for a long time. The writing is very detailed.