The Great Qin Chronicles of Mingxi: A Princess Restores Order to a Chaotic Age

In the third year of King Zhuangxiang of Qin, twelve-year-old Ying Zhao stood in the Yong Lane of Xianyang Palace, clutching a bloodstained dagger beside the corpse of the “false father” Lü Buwei had presented to the palace.

Her half-siblings wailed in their swaddling clothes. Her mother Zhao Ji’s shrieks pierced her ears. As she watched her elder brother Ying Zheng hurry toward her, she pressed the bloody dagger into his palm. “Elder Brother, this is a bloodied mire we must cross together.”

That day, she helped Ying Zheng put an end to the disgraceful scandal in the harem, but also earned herself the historical accusation of “killing her younger brother and murdering her mother.”

Ying Zheng touched the bloodstained hair atop her head and, for the first time, shed tears, a rare sight in the imperial family. “Zhao’er, from now on, I will wield the blade of Qin.”