Shen Jinqin is the lowliest concubine-born daughter in the Minister’s residence, treated worse than a dog at her legitimate elder sister’s side. Reborn after dying as a withered corpse in the Cold Palace, she now has a gaze glinting with poison-tempered coldness. In this life, she vows to rip away the mask of her hypocritical stepmother, grind her white-lotus elder sister into the dirt, and reclaim everything that belongs to her.
She originally hopes to escape through a marriage everyone else is desperate to avoid, but Xiao Che, the moody and unpredictable tyrant on the Dragon Throne, singles her out with a mere gesture and forcibly brings her into the imperial harem.
Everyone at court knows the emperor is cruel and bloodthirsty, and that the six palaces are little more than empty shells. They all bet that this lowborn concubine-born girl won’t survive three days.
But she saves the Empress Dowager with a peerless, long-lost perfume recipe and repeatedly turns the tables on poison plots with her remarkable intelligence, rising from the lowest-ranking palace attendant as she cuts down monsters and demons along the way.
And the emperor, who sees all living beings as ants, completely changes before her. He grips her slender waist, the source of all her troublemaking, his eyes thick with possessiveness and obsession. “Qinqin, smile at someone else one more time, and I’ll tear this empire apart and make it your cage.”
Shen Jinqin smiles and nods, then turns around and uproots the powerful official who plotted against her father and brothers.
