The twelfth month's wind was bitterly cold when a flash of blades appeared. As soon as Jiang Wanyue, the legitimate daughter of a military family, arrived in the capital, mysterious assassins tried to kill her. She drew the soft sword, Snow Soul, from her sleeve. Its gleaming blade sliced through more than the assassins' weapons: it made clear that she was no sheltered, helpless young lady.
At the palace banquet, glittering jewels could not hide the undercurrents of danger. Facing the scrutiny of the young emperor, Xiao Jingyan, Jiang Wanyue concealed her edge and played the part of a gentle young lady. But the emperor's keen gaze caught the glaring streak of blood on her sleeve. “The snow on Vermilion Bird Avenue is an unsettling shade of red.” His quiet words exposed the calm she had so carefully feigned.
Before she could catch her breath, the emperor said something astonishing: “I need an empress who isn't afraid of blood. The wedding will be in three days. Do you object?” This sudden decree was like a boulder thrown into still water. Her father was furious, knowing it would put the Jiang family in the path of the powerful minister Su Yutang. The “accidents” that had claimed the previous two empresses were a bloody warning.
Yet Jiang Wanyue's eyes blazed with fierce resolve. After ten years on the border, she knew that even the most perilous places could offer a chance to survive. Emperor Xiao Jingyan, a young ruler who seemed to be at the mercy of his ministers, was clearly playing a much larger game. “My empress must not die so easily,” he declared. It was both a promise and a challenge.
She accepted the imperial decree and cast off her disguise. She would enter the central palace not for wealth and glory, but to step into the most dangerous game in the land. With Snow Soul in hand, she would carve out a path to survival for the Jiang family. More than that, she would discover what the inscrutable emperor was truly planning. In this game where their lives were the stakes, she would see it through to the end!
