She was once a carefree young lady from Jiangnan, but a sudden turn of events led her into the inner palace, rewriting her fate forever.
Su Lingyi, daughter of the Jiangnan Circuit's Investigating Censor, was beautiful and refined, with a resilient spirit. She had once pledged herself to her childhood sweetheart, Gu Jinyu, and dreamed of the future with her elder brother, Su Mingyuan. But a sudden incident shattered her peaceful life: her brother was imprisoned after standing up for a victim of injustice and offending a powerful noble. To save him, Su Lingyi resolutely entered the palace as a candidate in the selection.
Every step in the palace was fraught with danger. From an innocent girl, she gradually grew into a master of political intrigue, forging her way through the palace's tangled schemes. She once believed that ascending to the empress's throne would let her protect her family and control her own fate. She never realized that behind the pinnacle of power lay the slow estrangement of family, friends, and love.
"If I had known the empress's throne would condemn me to a lifetime of loneliness, would I still have chosen this path?"
Standing atop the palace wall, Su Lingyi gazed toward distant Jiangnan, a glimmer of tears in her eyes.
This is an epic coming-of-age story, from innocence to political intrigue, and a cycle of fate that takes her from having everything to losing it all. She gained the realm, but lost everything she had once treasured most.
