The General's Daughter: I Am the Master of the Night

Everyone in the capital knew that Shen Qingci, the legitimate daughter of the Duke's estate, was as frail as a medicine jar. She coughed up blood after just a few steps and spent her days sitting idly beneath the eaves with a hand warmer in her arms. Even her fiancé, Zhao Mingxuan, thought she was too weak and broke off their engagement in public, making her a laughingstock.

No one knew that beneath the delicate beauty of her sickly exterior lay the most mysterious power behind the Shadow Guard Bureau. A light tap of her fingertips on the hand warmer sent intelligence capable of shaking the court. The handkerchief she coughed blood onto was covered in secret messages detailing the rebels' movements. Even when her family pressured her and the world mocked her, she concealed the sharpness in her eyes behind a languid air, secretly commanding three thousand shadow guards to protect the foundations of the realm.

On the day the rebel leader Li Yuanba laid siege to the city, flames reddened the sky and the Duke's estate stood on the brink of ruin. Just as everyone fell into despair, that frail figure stepped out slowly, wiped the blood from the corner of her mouth, and cast forth a gilded secret order. In an instant, black-clad guards surged into view, and all three thousand knelt to receive her command. "Protect the estate and crush the rebellion!" Her voice was soft, yet carried the force of thunder.

From a discarded, sickly legitimate daughter to the formidable power behind the shadow guards, Shen Qingci used her wits to turn the tide and stood alongside the new emperor, Xiao Jingyu, to restore order to the court. When she donned the golden-embroidered cloak, she finally made the world understand: what seems like weakness has always been the sharpest disguise of the strong.