Three Years a Slave: A Vengeful Rampage Through the Imperial Capital

In the bustling capital, Gu Nianzhi, the legitimate daughter of Gu, Vice Minister of Revenue, was once the cherished apple of her family's eye. She was exceptionally clever and excelled at poetry, music, needlework, and embroidery. Her life was filled with light and happiness.

But a shadow suddenly fell over her fate. After Gu Nianzhi and her mother entered the Gu residence, everything changed completely. Gu Nianzhi was maliciously framed and accused of breaking a keepsake belonging to her late father. Unable to clear her name, she was sent by her father and elder brother to the palace's Yeting Bureau without a shred of mercy. Three years of unending hardship followed. At the Yeting Bureau, she had to clean chamber pots every day and endured every kind of torment. In the depths of winter, her hands were covered in chilblains, and the pride and confidence she once possessed gradually wore away. Even her fiance, Lu Jingxuan, looked at her with disgust and kept as far away from her as he could.

Three years later, Gu Nianzhi was finally allowed to leave the Yeting Bureau and return home. But what awaited her was the dreadful news that her mother had died, along with the announcement that Zhou, Gu Wanqing's mother, was about to become the mistress of the Gu household. Everyone in the family treated her coldly and constantly humiliated her. Gu Wanqing repeatedly plotted against her, while Gu Changfeng beat her and punished her with the paddle. Her circumstances were even worse than they had been at the Yeting Bureau.

Just as Gu Nianzhi was on the brink of despair, her fate quietly took a turn. Eunuch Liu, the Crown Prince Chu Yan's personal attendant, suddenly appeared and summoned her to the palace. It turned out that while she was in the palace, Gu Nianzhi had used the medical skills taught to her by her mother to provide the Emperor with a life-saving medicine through Chu Yan, and that was what had earned her a chance to survive. Chu Yan had rescued her from the Yeting Bureau and settled her in the imperial garden. This time, he promised to see that she received justice.