Shen Qingxian’s life came to an abrupt end the day her entire family was wiped out. From then on, the daughter of the former dynasty’s Grand Tutor was dead. The one who survived was a palace maid named “Jinse,” serving by the side of the Seventh Prince Murong Yi in the Cold Palace.
She came bearing a blood feud, carefully weaving a tender snare. She wanted to mold him into the sharpest blade, helping her wipe out her enemies and churn the murky realm into turmoil. The prince who seemed frail, despondent, and indifferent to the world was the perfect pawn for her plans.
She taught him statecraft, treated his illness, and relied on him as they faced the world together. She thought she had everything under control, until the night of the palace coup, when he fought his way through a sea of blood for her, murdered his brother to seize the throne, and climbed over mountains of bones to claim the imperial seat.
He offered her a bloodstained kingdom as his bride-price and promised her the position of empress, but his gaze held a possessiveness and madness she had never seen before. “This realm is yours, and you are mine.”
Yet when the blood-red curtain concealing the truth behind her family’s destruction was finally drawn back layer by layer, she was horrified to discover that the maternal clan that had helped him rise to power was among those who had driven her family into the abyss.
Love and hatred collide fiercely in her heart, while duty to her country and family tears her apart. Back then, she was the player and he was a pawn in her game. Now he has become the tyrant who controls everything, while she is the most precious captive in his gilded cage.
When the blade in her hand finally points toward the chest of the man who once promised her a lifetime together, in this game played in the name of love, will she win the realm, or will he lose her?
Jinse has fifty strings that play without cause, each string and bridge recalling the years of youth. In this game that began with lies and became a contest of true hearts, will they sink into ruin together, or find their way back to the moonlight that once shone in the Cold Palace?
