In the pouring rain, Jiang Lin'an kneels on the bluestone steps as a ruler splits the skin of her palm. The nanny scolds her sharply: “A marriage alliance is a heavenly favor. How dare the princess try to run away!” She looks up with a cold smile, her gaze fixed on the figure in black robes. “A foreign minister lets palace servants mistreat their mistress. If the Northern Barbarians learn that Great Zhao has treated its princess so cruelly, will this marriage alliance still stand?”
In her previous life, she was an abandoned daughter of the Cold Palace, sent into the wilderness in exchange for a moment of peace. Reborn, she casts off her timidity and rewrites her fate in blood. She dismantles the empress’s hypocrisy and the consort’s deadly schemes, step by step. At court, she wields the Northern Barbarians’ blade to kill her enemies and establish her authority. In the dark, she weaves a web of evidence against powerful ministers, forcing the great clans to bow their heads.
Prince Regent Pei Hongjing watches with a cold gaze, yet can’t suppress his shock. “Your Highness stirs up storms. Aren’t you afraid of getting burned?”
She taps the tiger tally with her fingertips, her smile sharp as a blade. “Uncle wants the empire secure, and I want my enemies punished. Why not join me for a game?”
On the night rebels surround the city, he stands before her with his sword raised, his dark armor soaked in blood. “I’ll fight for the world you want. But this life…” His voice is hoarse. “You must keep it so you can settle the score with me.”
From a pawn anyone could trample to the ruler of the Ninefold Palace, she wants more than to rule from behind the curtain
She will wield a woman’s strength to cleave through the iron laws of imperial power.
