Shen Qingci died after the prince she had wholeheartedly supported, her husband, personally sent her to the sacrificial altar to offer her blood in exchange for his empire.
When she opened her eyes again, she had returned to the year before the tragedy. Her family was about to be framed for treason and executed to the last member. In this life, she would make them pay in blood for every debt from her last!
She knew that the only force capable of opposing the future imperial power was one even more terrifying: Pei Jin, the director of the Black-Robed Bureau, who wielded immense influence at court and had slaughtered countless people.
Everyone feared him as they would a demon, but she went to him alone and offered him a pledge of loyalty. “I’ll help you stay one step ahead. You’ll keep my family safe.”
He accepted the bargain with interest, watching to see how she would struggle in this game of chess.
But little by little, she began to realize that this cruel, violent monster seemed... not quite right.
After killing, he always bathed and changed his clothes, washing away every trace of blood before he would hold her.
Obsessed to the point of madness, he would nevertheless plead hoarsely in her ear, “If I’m covered in sin, filthy as mud, would you still want me?”
Then, on the night of the palace coup, he came striding over a mountain of corpses, covered in blood. Behind him knelt his ministers; before him lay a magnificent empire.
In front of the whole world, he placed the phoenix seal in her hand and laughed recklessly.
“I offer you the empire as my bride-price, Shen Qingci. Are you satisfied?”
