Deep within the palace, where its halls were as unfathomable as the sea, schemes lurked at every turn and the struggle for power never ceased. Gao Ruoyao, a palace maid in the Imperial Kitchen, was drawn into a heart-pounding court conspiracy by an accident.
In the chill of early spring, a jade bangle split into three pieces set the turmoil in motion. Lin Wan'er deliberately made things difficult for Gao Ruoyao, while Nanny Wang berated her harshly, sending her plunging into despair. But Gao Ruoyao was no pushover. With the Gao family's ancestral art of spirit music, she found a way through every crisis.
While searching for snowbud fungus, she uncovered clues linking Lin Wan'er to Noble Consort Li. As her investigation deepened, shocking evidence emerged: while cleaning a copper cauldron, a fragmentary score on its inner wall resonated with spirit music, revealing a connection between her father and an unjust case involving the Music Bureau in the late emperor's reign; gold dust on the snowbud fungus led to clues about Western Regions witchcraft, and a golden-leaf heart-devouring parasite was controlling the noble consort's mind; when the flames consumed blood-winged moths, a white jade token engraved with Noble Consort Li's maiden name formed in the ashes; and ink marks that turned blood-red with changes in temperature appeared on the steps of a secret passage, pointing to the dungeon where a key witness was imprisoned.
To uncover the truth, Gao Ruoyao endured countless dangers. She forced her spirit music to open the secret passage, and a phoenix-shaped musical mark appeared on her wrist; the rotten fireflies deep in the dungeon amplified the power of spirit music with the unique frequency of their wingbeats; and within the stone walls were the remains of a hundred palace maids who had been used as poison testers. The cries of the silver bells around their wrists spoke of grievances no one had ever known.
Can Gao Ruoyao use the art of spirit music to pierce the layers of fog and reveal the truth behind the palace conspiracy? How will she choose in the struggle between power and justice? The Legendary Palace Intrigue of the Gao Clan's Daughter: The Melody That Shook the Palace takes you into a thrilling tale of court intrigue.
