One song of battle stirs the realm; half a lifetime of scheming buries her youth.
She is Feng Qingge, the orphaned daughter of a military family, lying low in the Music Bureau as she seeks to clear her family's name. He is Quan Yi, the iron-fisted regent, burdened by the mystery of the late emperor's sudden death.
At a palace banquet, her song, “Breaking the Formation,” conceals a hidden message. He sees through it and abducts her, making her his prisoner. Flogged in a dungeon and soothed by the sound of her zither, the two proud souls are forced to walk the same path by a three-month pact: she will help him investigate the late emperor's death, and he will help her overturn her family's wrongful conviction.
From prisoner in his bed to ally, from suspicion to desire. She discovers that the source of his headaches is tied to her father's death; he realizes that the phoenix tattoo on her body conceals secrets of the previous dynasty. Noble Consort Yu's schemes unfold one after another, the young emperor's smile is unfathomable, and the Northern Frontier's iron cavalry presses toward the capital.
When the truth shatters their trust, she asks through her tears, “What if I've been deceiving you from beginning to end...”
He takes her chin in his hand, his gaze deep as an abyss. “Then deceive me for a lifetime.”
The zither's music is their trap; power is their blade. From pawns to players, they carve out a way to survive in this blood-soaked court. Only when the phoenix rises from the ashes do they realize that the strongest cage in the world is one you willingly build around yourself.
