Chang'an's Twenty-Four Stratagems: A Bloodstained Gift

On a stormy night, an excavation of a suspected tomb reveals an empty coffin and no body, only half a jade pendant and the number “twenty-five” on a secret letter. Together, they point to a shocking deception from ten years ago.

Su Qingyan had hoped to live in seclusion in Jiangnan, but a blood-written message on an ancient zither and a secret summons from the emperor force her back to Chang’an, into a deadly game. The palace gates conceal treachery, incense brings on hallucinations, and the Noble Consort’s coded signals hide a mystery. The emperor is gravely ill, yet his plans run deep. A secret edict on the succession points to the bloodline of the previous dynasty, while a slow-acting poison lurks in the medicine jar.

At the birthday banquet, three assassination attempts strike at once. Amid the smoke of gunpowder, Noble Consort Lin takes a sword meant for someone else, revealing a token belonging to a princess of the previous dynasty. Deep in a secret passage, the truth of the underground palace comes to light: the legacy of the Twenty-Five Stratagems, the origins of twins, and the tangled love and hatred of three generations. Everyone is a pawn, and even the emperor is willing to offer his empire as a bride-price for the woman he loves.

But when the mastermind, her “deceased” father, appears with the true plan to restore the previous dynasty, and sacrifice and betrayal weave a net around them all, Su Qingyan finally understands that the ultimate purpose of the Twenty-Five Stratagems is to break the deadlock by letting go of hatred.

The underground palace collapses, Chang’an goes up in flames, and the secret archives are burned to ashes. She holds the tiger tally and a token that commands hidden agents; she is pregnant, and her loved ones and the ties of her past are by her side. Is this bloody gift, ten years in the making, the end, or the beginning of another game?