The realm is a chessboard, and twin sisters are the stakes in a struggle for power. A prophecy of “twins with divided hearts” set the twin sisters of the Ming Prince's household on separate paths from the cradle.
Volume One, The Pearl Chronicles: Ming Qingjian, the eldest legitimate daughter, was born burdened by the fate that every Ming daughter must become empress. Affection quietly blossomed between her and Jiang Zhenhong, the young son of a prime minister who had been her childhood companion, but she was forced to struggle against the emperor's suspicions and the shackles of ancestral laws. Crown Prince Jing Suijin fell for Ming Yintong, a concubine-born daughter who had transmigrated into this world. Together, the four of them reformed the tax system, repelled rebel forces, and quelled uprisings, using their passion to tear a ray of dawn through the iron curtain of imperial power. But the turbulent age allowed no happy endings. Ming Qingjian gave her life to ensure her young son's survival, and the bloodstained white jade she left behind at her death would uncover a conspiracy capable of shaking the realm...
Volume Two, The Book of the Nightmare Realm: The younger twin sister was lost among the common people and sold as a child bride at the age of six. She could only watch as her mad elder sister was consumed by the chaos of the age. From a beggars' den to Ghost Physician Valley, from a human test subject to the Nine-Thousand-Year-Old, she donned a mask with blue skin and fangs and wielded the power of life and death at court. Her name was Yan Yan, and her heart held a living hell. Then, wounded by an arrow and thrown from her horse, she was rescued by the Ming Prince's household. A broken jade pendant revealed her origins: the prophecy had been nothing but a cruel lie spun by an emperor. Faced with a devastating plague caused by the creation of human test subjects, the “treacherous eunuch” who had once slaughtered every enemy instead took up the blade offered by her homeland, moved by her parents' trembling tears and her young nephew's innocent affection. When the shining pearl fell into the long night, the shadow of nightmare finally saw the light. Two generations of Ming women tore through the chains of feudalism with blood and fire: one wielded love as a blade, carving freedom into the ancestral stele; the other raised hatred as a shield, lifting dawn from the abyss. And at the end of the prophecy was never fate, but the path through the human world forged by the choices of countless people.
A micro-group portrait, the protagonist and the supporting characters are all highlighted! The legitimate daughter does not follow fate, the concubine is not vicious, the sisters love each other and become a family!