Spring warmed the south, and in a single night, everything became a thing of the past. She was the legitimate daughter of the Lin family, famed throughout Jinling for her talent, but the Canal Transport case destroyed her family and left her a disgraced concubine of the Eastern Palace, the lowest of the low. He was a crown prince who trod carefully at every turn, out of favor with the emperor and forced to accept this “discarded pawn” his father had cast his way.
The imperial palace was as deep as the sea, its red walls a prison. She was content to be a silent shadow, until one night an old servant risked his life to deliver bloodstained evidence to her. He watched with cold indifference, yet left books on canal transport and border defenses on her desk. As mutual suspicion gave way to a secret understanding, she discovered among the old books and lamplight a shocking conspiracy of embezzlement reaching into the Ministry of War and endangering the border. Through layer upon layer of deception, he moved his pieces into position, turning her into a blade to pierce the darkness.
At a plum-blossom banquet, she declared her resolve through poetry. Deep in the palace, she used a painting to convey her message. When a bloodstained private ledger pointed straight to the throne, and corruption at court reignited the border fires, could this couple, whose marriage began as a scheme, join hands and find a way through the raging storm?
A cold, restrained crown prince × the resilient daughter of a disgraced minister. From a political marriage to entrusting each other with their lives. Palace intrigue, the fate of the realm, love and hate burning together in the abyss.
