The Phoenix Palace, Fragrant Ashes Remain

[Coolheaded, composed noblewoman × obsessive, restrained emperor] Shen Qingyi, the legitimate daughter of the Shen family of Jiangnan, is stunningly beautiful and as resilient as a winter plum. She and Xiao Heng, then the crown prince, fell deeply in love in Jiangnan, but the gulf between their stations forced them to part with heavy hearts. She married into a prominent family, and though she and her husband treated each other with respect, they had two bright, delightful children. But fate was cruel, and her husband died young. Taking pity on her, the Empress Dowager summoned her to the capital with her young children for a change of scenery. Returning to a familiar place, she found everything changed. Shen Qingyi thought she had long since moved on, while Xiao Heng believed an emperor's heart was unfathomable. She was the Empress Dowager's beloved niece and a recent widow; he was the Son of Heaven, with a full harem. Ritual, status, and the judgment of the world stood between them like an uncrossable chasm. Yet when they met again in the forbidden palace, a glance rekindled the fire buried deep in their hearts, and it soon blazed out of control, searing them to the bone. Their clever, precocious daughter; their innocent, carefree son; the gentle empress, with hidden designs of her own; and the concubines, each with their own agenda... The capital was rife with danger, and old feelings surged like an undercurrent. They struggled between reason and desire, teetering on the edge of restraint and surrender. When an old token resurfaced, rumors ran rampant, and one scheme followed another, how would this consuming love, born from the ashes of Jiangnan and set ablaze in the palace's forbidden depths, burn away every constraint and allow emperor and empress to join hands and cross into forbidden territory together?