Shen Zhiwei, a top modern history student, wakes up as a concubine-born daughter of a Vice Minister who is bullied by everyone. To escape being married off as an old man’s concubine, she is forced into the man-eating inner palace. Here, the emperor’s thoughts are impossible to fathom, and the consorts hide knives behind their smiles. She conceals her talents, takes history as her guide, and uses the rules to break the rules, carefully navigating her way through schemes and power struggles. From a low-ranking court lady struggling to survive to an empress who holds the phoenix seal, she tempers her wisdom in the depths of despair and stays true to herself amid love, loyalty, and political intrigue. With blood on her hands and a mountain of corpses behind her, she stands at the edge of the abyss and chooses a path no one expects: to shatter the shackles of the inner palace and bring the first ray of light to countless women.
