He is Jun Heng, the regent who holds all the power in the realm.
He commands life and death, cold and unyielding as stone. His name is the dynasty’s most precious jade, and a blade hanging over everyone’s head.
He is Xie Yunxi, a lost pearl of an enemy state.
With his homeland shattered, he is like duckweed adrift, his name as faint as smoke. To survive in these troubled times, he conceals his brilliance and disappears into the bustle of the common streets, becoming an actor who paints his face, takes the stage, and charms his way through every encounter.
At a private performance, Jun sits below the stage as sleeves flutter and dance.
At a single, breathtaking glance, between a winding melody and a luminous gaze, the regent glimpses the actor’s untempered pride and astonishing talent.
He thinks he has ensnared a lone swan whose wings have yet to mature, someone to amuse and instruct in his spare time. He believes he can gradually wear down the actor’s spirit with his authority and turn him into a blade at his side.
He does not know that the dust he has brushed away hides a sword, its edge still sharp, and a spark of wildfire capable of consuming the world.
The seemingly docile “Yunxi” has never truly bent the knee. He lies low in enemy territory, making his moves in the game of the man who seeks to control him. Every step takes him along the tightrope between restoring his country and redeeming himself.
The music sings of love and loss, but the performance conceals surging undercurrents.
The regent sets him trial after trial and binds him with one restraint after another, never realizing whose heart and mind have truly been ensnared.
As the truth emerges, their disguises become impossible to maintain.
Will family vengeance and hatred between nations burn away their reason first, or will the affection quietly taking root throw them off balance?
This is a game played on the edge of a cliff, a contest of testing one another amid illusion and reality, with the realm itself as the wager: a game that will shake the world.
