In the final years of the Dayong Dynasty, imperial authority has weakened, regional warlords rule their own territories, and undercurrents churn through both the court and the martial world.
Shen Zhiwei, born into a scholarly family in Jiangnan, should have been an elegant young woman spending her days reading and grinding ink in the inner chambers. But when her father is implicated in a rebellion case, her entire family is imprisoned. To save them, she casts off her skirts and draws on her family's inherited knowledge of medicine and mechanical devices to slip into the treacherous currents of the capital.
Meanwhile, Xiao Jin, branded a traitor, lies low among the common people. As he investigates the truth behind his family's massacre, he secretly protects loyal officials persecuted by powerful ministers. Cold as ice, he nevertheless glimpses the resilience beneath Shen Zhiwei's delicate appearance when they meet by chance. She dares to enter a tiger's den to save her father and defies the law to protect the innocent, like a flower struggling to bloom from the ashes in the depths of winter.
From mutual suspicion to trust, the two gradually uncover a shocking conspiracy stretching back ten years amid the cut and thrust of political intrigue and the martial world's feuds and vendettas. The rebellion case was a pretext for powerful ministers to seize power, the war on the northern frontier was a prelude to the vassal princes forcing their way onto the throne, and their families had long been pawns destined for sacrifice.
As the truth emerges, layer by layer, imperial power looms ahead while old grudges pursue them from behind. Xiao Jin's path of revenge and Shen Zhiwei's determination to save her family converge on the same choice: should they drown in personal grievances, or take up arms to defend this vast realm, battered by storm and strife?
From the ashes, hatred can take root, but so too can flowers of protection bloom.
