The Hairpin of a Fleeting World

[Sweet romance and political intrigue × sizzling chemistry × a hairpin at the heart of the plot]

Su Wantang, the daughter of a disgraced official, assumes another woman’s identity to enter the palace selection, only to have Chancellor Pei, who holds power over the entire court, stop her carriage and demand to inspect her.

“That cinnabar mole behind your ear…” His fingertips traced her trembling back. “It’s exactly like the one described in the case files of the massacre that wiped out the previous dynasty’s family.”

To save her father’s life, she is forced to work with the cold-faced minister. He protects her from deadly schemes in the palace, while she helps him unravel the court’s tangled mysteries.

In the imperial study, the tip of a hairpin carries a secret message. In the hot spring, a jade hairpin slips open her wet clothes. On a stormy night, a broken hairpin presses against her heart. “Pei Yanzhi, are you inspecting the goods, or listening to my heartbeat?”

When the phoenix hairpin fits into the emblem of the previous dynasty, the truth behind their blood feud tears apart the person beside her in bed.

She kneels on the icy steps, shattering them, and offers a hairpin carved from her own thigh bone as atonement. He crushes the jade hairpin and laughs coldly. “When the Su family ordered the Pei family’s execution, they used this very imperial weapon!”