Yaohua, the Concubine’s Daughter: Splendor in the Deep Palace

In the Great Qi Dynasty, Emperor Xiao Che had been on the throne for five years. Deeply versed in political maneuvering, cold and suspicious, his lifelong goal was to eliminate the powerful maternal relatives and rule the court alone. The harem was dominated by Noble Consort Su, the Grand Tutor's legitimate daughter, whose illustrious family and unparalleled favor made her untouchable. Empress Shen Wei, with neither favor nor children, could only keep herself safe by treading carefully.

Su Yao, a concubine-born daughter of the Minister of Rites, lost her mother at an early age. Amid her stepmother's coldness, her legitimate elder sister's torment, and her father's indifference, she survived like a speck of dust for fifteen years. With the selection of palace consorts approaching, her legitimate elder sister, Su Yue, feared the dangers of the imperial palace and feigned illness to avoid selection, forcing Su Yao to enter the palace in her place.

A box of rouge concealing a poison-coated hairpin was her elder sister's hypocritical “gift.” The towering red walls of the imperial palace formed a deadly trap she could not escape. With no powerful family, no backing, and no way out, Su Yao had only her wits as a blade and her heart as a shield. Using the emperor's political game to break the noble consort's deadly trap, she fought her way through the man-eating harem, transforming from a discarded pawn at everyone's mercy into the mistress of the harem who controlled her own fate.