In the twenty-seventh year of Yong'an, Shen Qingci, eldest legitimate daughter of the Duke of Zhenguo's household, entered the Forbidden City after placing among the top three in the imperial selection. Born a heaven-blessed prodigy, she excels at music, chess, calligraphy, and painting. From her mother, she inherited the mettle of a military family, along with a keen mind and courage that rival any man's. Others see only a gentle, dignified noblewoman, unaware that the palace walls became a battlefield she was destined to conquer the year she came of age.
When she first enters the palace, she keeps to her duties and avoids vying for favor, yet is repeatedly framed. A talented lady sharing her residence poisons her in secret, a powerful consort makes trouble for her on flimsy pretexts, and even the seemingly kind Empress Dowager regards the Duke of Zhenguo's household behind her as a thorn in her side, hoping to use Shen Qingci as a pawn to balance the court. Shen Qingci proceeds with careful strategy, captivating the emperor with a performance of the Dance of the Startled Swan and earning his favor with a proposal for disaster relief. When crises arise, she strikes back with decisive force, protecting those around her and making those who plot against her pay dearly.
The young emperor, Xiao Jingyuan, has ruled for three years. At court, powerful ministers constrain him; beyond the borders, vassal kings watch like hawks; and the harem is a hidden arena where rival factions vie for power. When he first meets Shen Qingci, he takes her for yet another noblewoman eager to curry favor. But through their repeated clashes and tests of one another, her intelligence, resilience, and occasional glimpses of vulnerability move him. He breaks the harem's rules for her, building Yaoguang Hall to keep her as his sole beloved; clears obstacles at court for her, weakening the power of his maternal relatives and the ministers; and when she is caught in rumors of treason, proclaims to the world with imperial authority, “My empress for this lifetime will be none other than Shen Qingci.”
But the road through the deep palace is never smooth. The deposed empress's relatives return to power, and a princess from a neighboring kingdom arrives with armies and
