The day she becomes an abandoned consort in the cold palace, Su Wanyue discovers the secret passage from a former dynasty beneath a dry well.
The emperor sees her as bait, the empress dowager treats her as a blade, and the eunuchs wait to use her as a stepping stone.
Everyone laughs at her as a dead piece on the board, yet she sits at the heart of the greatest intelligence network in the realm, holding secrets capable of bringing down the court.
Later, the empress dowager curses her in the Buddhist shrine, the eunuchs kneel and offer up all their wealth, and the young emperor knocks on the cold palace door in the dead of night:
"Tell me, what do you want in order to win this game?"
Su Wanyue makes a move. The vast realm is reflected on the chessboard:
"Winning was never what I wanted."
"What I want is to rewrite the rules of this game."
📚It's really good. It's the only novel about a cold palace fight that I can follow! Looking forward to turning it into a short drama one day!