Wei Qingci, a slave condemned for her crimes, wielded her pipa as a blade and her chilblains as a key, tearing open the darkest layer of the Great Abyss's gilded tapestry.
She crawled through the blood pools of the imperial prison and deciphered the pickled-vegetable Morse code. She hid a key in the cracks of her chilblained fingers. From the lowliest laundry basin, she fought her way upstream, carving through the hidden canals of grain transport, the iron city of the northern deserts, and the cracks between the Directorate of Ceremonial and the Dragon Throne.
Feng Bao, Zhang Qiming, and the one upon the Dragon Throne all thought she was nothing but a pawn to be discarded. Little did they know she was the iron wedge that would pry open their unwinnable game.
When the truth came to light, she sought no place in the history books. She wanted only her enemies kneeling beneath the old banner of the Wei family, listening to a performance of "The Orchid in Seclusion" and watching to see who, in the end, would crumble into dust.
