A Jade Pact

Xiao Yu’er marries Dorgon, dreaming of a hero, only to discover on their wedding night that she is merely a stand-in for the woman he loves, her older sister Da Yu’er. After three years of alternating warmth and coldness, her passion is spent and her heart turns to ash.

One day, her anguished sobs in the snow and her fleeting, shattered beauty catch the eye of Emperor Hong Taiji. In that single glance, the man is captivated by her beauty, while the ruler sizes up his prey. With an imperial decree, he takes his subject’s wife and forces her into the palace, both to satisfy his own desires and to strike at his political rival, Dorgon, as he tests who truly bears the fate of the phoenix.

From then on, Xiao Yu’er is swept into a whirlpool of emotion and a political game. She sinks in agony beneath Hong Taiji’s domineering yet calculated affection, despairing even as she blossoms. Meanwhile, the newly awakened Dorgon and Da Yu’er, watching coldly from the depths of the palace, make this four-way contest all the more treacherous.

From a stand-in at the mercy of others to a player moving the pieces, how will Xiao Yu’er carve out a path to survival amid the ruins of love and the narrow confines of power?