Xiao Li, the powerful Grand Princess who holds sway over the court, takes in a “little wolf cub” whose family has been destroyed and makes him her pawn.
She gives him a name, teaches him the art of scheming, and hones him into the sharpest blade in her hand. She watches him transform from a scarred boy into a battle-hardened general. Whispers spread through the court: “The Grand Princess keeps male favorites and disgraces the imperial palace!” Xiao Li sneers. She believes only in power, not love, and certainly not for the “younger brother” she raised herself.
But Shen Zhuo’s gaze grows more and more fervent. He cuts down every thorn at her side and crushes every rumor, earning one dazzling achievement after another so he can stand proudly beside her. During an assassination attempt, he shields her with his own body, gripping the hem of her robe with a bloodied hand. “Your Highness… Shen Zhuo has never thought of you as his sister.”
A crack opens in Xiao Li’s defenses, but she sends him even farther away to the border. She fears this forbidden passion will ruin his future, and fears even more that she herself will succumb to it.
Until she is framed and thrown into prison, and an imperial edict ordering her to marry for an alliance arrives like a death sentence…
The thunder of iron hooves shatters the capital’s peace! The little wolf cub she once pushed away has returned at the head of a ferocious army, breaking through the pass. The young commander, radiating menace, points his sword at the imperial throne. “Anyone who harms her dies!”
He crosses a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood to reach her. Before the eyes of everyone present, he presses her onto the dragon throne, the symbol of supreme power, his breath burning hot. “A Li, is the empire enough of a bride price for you to marry me?” The “younger brother” who once needed her protection has become a demon who commands life and death, yet he bows to her alone.
A forbidden love between brother and sister? A twisted romance born of raising him? He insists on this scandalous love, for the whole world to witness! Watch as the Grand Princess is carried back to his den by the wolf cub she raised herself, only to be doted on like a queen!
The book is good to read, and the emotional and career lines of the two people are also quite clear, but the relationship between the emperor and the two people is very confusing. The first article said they were aunt and nephew, then the older brother died, then the older brother and younger sister, and finally the older sister and younger brother. I don't know if there's something wrong with my reading, or there's something wrong with the timeline, or maybe I made a typo and it looks weird.