When everyone else feared him, I heard the wounds in his heart.
Shen Shujing, a palace maid in the Imperial Kitchen, nearly became another victim of the tyrant’s poison-tasting. That day, she suddenly gained the ability to hear people’s thoughts. Her first listener was none other than the young emperor Xiao Lin, infamous for his brutality and arbitrary executions.
She heard his icy murderous intent as he faced a bowl of poisoned soup, and the agonized whispers he uttered alone in the middle of the night when a headache struck. Fear made her knock over the poisoned cup, but a moment of compassion also led her to ease his old affliction. In the perilous inner palace, mind-reading was her only shield, helping her go from struggling to survive to taking the initiative and entering the fray.
While everyone else saw Xiao Lin as an untouchable tyrant, only Shen Shujing knew that beneath his mercurial exterior lay the pain of being betrayed by his own family, and the loneliness of a fortress with no way out. He, too, gradually discovered that the seemingly timid little maid had an insight that saw through everything, and a courage he had never encountered before.
“Stay by my side.” He handed her his bloodstained sword, his voice hoarse. “Or leave with your freedom.”
She dropped the sword and took his cold hand. “I choose a third path: I’ll step into your empire.”
The writing is good, the plot setting and the narration rhythm are good. I recommend it. I hope everyone likes it 😄