A brilliant, obsessive, ruthless, cold female power broker with eight hundred schemes up her sleeve VS a clear-minded, pure-hearted, max-strength prince who is both foolish and bloodthirsty.
They heal each other.
Sima Zhao’er was brilliant, with a memory that never failed. Born into one of the four foremost aristocratic clans in the capital, she came of age in an era when women could take the imperial examinations and become officials, thanks to the efforts of those who came before her. She placed first in the civil service examinations at fifteen, then rose steadily through the ranks over the next decade, from the Hanlin Academy to the head of all officials.
As a powerful minister, she had to shoulder the world.
The deeper she sank into the whirlpool of power struggles, the unhappier she became.
In the thirty-seventh year of Jinghe, her elder brother and sister were gone…
Consumed by hatred, she personally tortured their killer to death.
In the second year of Guangqi, she heard that the person she held dear had died of illness.
After another eighteen years of storms and hardship, the emperor and empress, who had been both allies and enemies, passed away one after the other.
Yet she had been born without tears, and did not know what it felt like to cry.
In the fifth year of Qingming, she finally died.
Her soul lingered for more than twenty-seven years after her death, witnessing her loved ones and friends pass away one by one…
The deep depression that consumed her from within frightened her.
All that remained for her in this world was endless loneliness. She wandered around her lonely grave, wishing she could start over. If she could, she would change her ill-fated destiny and protect the loved ones and friends around her…
Xia Heng was truly a fool. He had fallen for his little girl before he was poisoned into madness.
But one day, he realized he was trapped in an endless cycle between childish stupidity and bloody slaughter.
Half foolish, half mad, half possessed; half his life lost in confusion, the other half devoted to her.
But he no longer had the right to touch the girl he held dear.
One day, he met a wild Taoist priest who told him that if he gave up the rest of his life and the merit of five lifetimes, he could be restored to normal and live his life over again…
