The Wicked Lady of the Duke of Zhenguo’s Mansion: A Single Vermilion Mark Decides the Nation’s Fate

Shen Jingluan is the second legitimate daughter of the Duke of Zhenguo’s household. Because of the vermilion mole between her brows and her alluring looks, her upright father sees her as a source of ruin. Her own mother favors her demure elder sister, while her stepmother and half-sister bully her mercilessly! After ten years in the cold, secluded compound, she has had enough of acting weak and has sharpened her claws. On the day of her coming-of-age ceremony, her father actually plans to marry her off to the remote wastelands to be fed to the barbarians? Shen Jingluan sneers and draws her sword. “Want me dead? Ask my blade if it agrees first!” Her stepmother poisons her? She turns the tables and forces the poison down her throat, then sends her to the cold palace to languish forever! Her half-sister steals her things? She cripples her hand and makes her a laughingstock! Her elder sister tries to use her betrothal to the Crown Prince to keep her in line? Shen Jingluan charms the Crown Prince until he can think of nothing else, then exposes his scandal, voiding her sister’s engagement and ruining her reputation! She joins forces with her maternal cousin to control Jiangnan’s wealth, allies with Prince Jing to command the capital’s military forces, and offers her legitimate elder brother strategies that win him battle honors and secure the family’s standing. At court, she manipulates events and sows discord between the emperor and his heir. In the inner household, she acts decisively and crushes one scoundrel after another. The world calls her a demoness who brings ruin to the nation, but she holds both military and financial power and stands at the pinnacle of authority, smiling as she looks down on everyone. “Rules are nothing but stepping stones for me to trample beneath my feet!” Anyone who dares to bully, insult, or abandon her, whether family or nobility, will pay in blood. She, Shen Jingluan, will make them pay their debt in blood and grind their bones to dust!