In the twelfth year of my captivity as a hostage in Handan, I finally saw the bloody game being played in this city. The King of Zhao treated me as a disposable pawn to keep Yan in check. Yu Qing saw me as a blade to set Qin and Zhao against each other. Even Guo Kai, that eunuch, dared to kick me while I was down and splash me with a basin of bloody filth. But they forgot that even a cornered beast has fangs.
From being humiliated by Zhao Kuo in the street to spreading out a map of Zhao’s mountains and rivers that I had drawn myself in the King of Zhao’s study; from Gongsun Yue taking a deadly arrow for me to Li Gou’er guarding my escape route despite his grievous wounds, through this dark and hopeless life as a hostage, I clutched The Art of War and half of a faded red cord. The cord was a keepsake from Zhao Shu, and the faith that kept me alive.
When I led Zhao’s cavalry to smash through Yan’s defenses, and exposed the treasonous conspiracy between Guo Kai and Yu Qing, I thought I had seized the reins of fate. But the news from Xianyang plunged me into an icy abyss: the schemes of Lady Huayang, the calculations of Lü Buwei, and the imminent birth of a child named Ying Zheng.
The world has never been simply black and white, and I am no longer the hostage trapped on the streets of Handan. Treading over schemes and bloodshed, I will reclaim the glory of Qin’s royal house, and make this age of chaos remember my name: Ying Yiren. For one day, I will be the one moving the pieces in this game of power and intrigue, and deciding the fate of the realm.
