The Shadow in My Arms: Plotting Together with You

[One-on-one romance: a calculating, brooding Seventh Prince × a ruthless female poison doctor and covert guard]

“You want to clear your name and expose the injustice? Then I'll identify the poison and find the evidence for you.”

“You want to ascend the throne? Then I'll rule the world by your side.”

Xiao Jingyu lived in the shadows, like a wild weed no one cared about, barely surviving in the cracks of imperial power. Yet in his eyes burned a fierce desire to clear his mother's name.

Shen Zhi was the disciple of a renowned physician and apothecary whose family had been destroyed. Her master had died a horrible death for refusing to make poison for corrupt officials. Clutching half a secret manual of medicine and poisons, she had nearly frozen to death on the streets in the dead of winter.

He offered her half a warm pastry. When she cried, “I have no home anymore,” he hid her in his drafty side hall. “From now on, stay with me.”

He gave her a corner where she could shelter from the wind and rain, and she became the sword and shield he kept hidden in the dark. Her silver needles could heal as well as kill without a trace. She tested poisons for him, treated his wounds, and used poisoned hidden weapons to clear the obstacles in his path.

By the time he emerged from the shadows, determined to clear his mother's name and shatter the rotten palace walls, she could stand at his side, steadying hearts with her medical skills and striking fear into petty villains with her poisons.

Their bond, born from half a pastry, became a partnership in crime.

In the Golden Throne Hall, he was the new emperor who set the world right. But when he turned to brush the snow from her hair, he said, “Look, this whole world is your home now, too.”

[Devoted only to each other + powerful hero and heroine]