In the Great Sheng Dynasty, Confucian rules were strict. Women were forbidden from meddling in politics, and women in love were forbidden, too.
Princess Zhao Ye dared to love and hate without restraint, but fell for someone she should never have loved: the daughter of a great general. They loved each other, but in the end, their feelings could not overcome the shackles of convention. The woman Zhao Ye loved didn't dare acknowledge their relationship and was forced to marry into the aristocracy at court. From then on, she was shut behind the high walls of a grand residence, and all contact was lost.
Heartbroken, Zhao Ye left for the frontier, losing herself in wine and pleasure among the wind and sand. There, she met a group of kindred spirits who were also crushed by the rules of propriety. But fate was cruel. Some died, some went their separate ways, and she alone remained, seeing the absurdity of the world through blood and fire.
She would wallow no longer.
She would rise.
She would change this cruel, cannibalistic system.
Her official father stood in her way, her brothers set traps for her, and no one at court believed a woman could rule. But as a princess, she joined the frontier army, won glory through blood and battle, and gradually earned the soldiers' loyalty and the people's hearts.
From a lover crushed by the rules of propriety to a ruler who rewrote the laws of the land...
In this life, she would ensure that no woman in the world was forced to marry, forced to stay silent, or forced to accept her fate.
She wasn't seeking the throne. She was fighting for the right to say, "I can."

