He is the pampered youngest son of the ruler of heaven and earth, His Highness Ling Xiao. Sent to the mortal realm to undergo a trial of love, he becomes Shen Jichen, a crippled prince despised by everyone in the Great Jing Dynasty.
She is the supreme ruler of the demon realm, Guan Heng. With waist-length green hair and overwhelming demonic power, she appears beneath the moon when he is at his lowest. A hint of amusement and a measure of control dance around her fingertips as she says, “From today on, you belong to me.”
He believes this is salvation, a passionate love that transcends their status. She helps him restore his spiritual meridians and shatter the imperial order, watching him ascend the throne and become the new emperor, supreme above all. On the night of his coronation, as they lie together in the softness of the imperial bed, she whispers in his ear, “In this life, I’ll protect you.”
He believes her.
Until his trial ends and he returns as Ling Xiao of the heavenly realm. He storms into the demon realm like a madman, only to find her seated on the demon throne, surrounded by three thousand male favorites. She raises her eyes, her green hair swaying slightly, and says in a voice cold as ice, “Shen Jichen is dead. What we had is over.”
Clutching the green hairpin she left behind, his eyes redden. He casts aside all his pride. “What if I’m willing to be one of your three thousand male favorites?”
She smiles, her fingertips brushing his chin with an irresistible air of authority. “Oh? Then remember your place as a male favorite: pleasure me, and don’t talk about love.”
Thirty thousand years of pursuit, a lifetime lost to desire.
He thought he was her exception, but in the end, he was no more than a speck of dust in her palm, a splash of color at her feet.
Yet the lost pearl from the imperial bed and the green strands at her temples conceal something no one can explain: was it love, or a scheme?
