Late at night, a raging fire engulfed the palace's Cold Palace. The deposed empress, Shen Qingci, looked back from the sea of flames. Her eyes held no sorrow at her impending death, only the resolve of one reborn from the ashes. In her hand, she clutched a broken jade hairpin. Beneath her feet lay a carefully laid mechanism, disguised as the scene of a suicide by fire.
Before the flames consumed everything, she silently swore toward the deepest part of the palace: "Xiao Jingyuan, Shen Qingci died today. When we meet again, we will be enemies, nothing more!"
