Shen Zhiyi, empress of the Great Sheng, gave ten years of devotion only to be repaid with a cup of poisoned wine. Her entire clan was wiped out. When she opened her eyes again, she had become Yunu, a beauty sent by the enemy nation of Southern Chu to marry into the imperial family.
At a palace banquet, a blade hidden in her sleeve and a radiant smile on her face, she looked toward Xiao Che on the throne, the emperor who had once sworn to stay by her side until their hair turned white.
She would make him pay with his life, and expose the cruelty behind his mask of benevolence.
But when she finally pressed her dagger to his heart, he took hold of the blade with trembling hands. Through the blood, he hoarsely whispered the name long buried in the past:
“Zhiyi... You finally came back to kill me.”
Only then did she learn that the cold palace built for her concealed the greatest secret under heaven, and that her father, branded a traitor, bore the dynasty's most painful scar.
And the mad love and desperate restraint that had burned in Xiao Che's eyes for ten years were all because of her. She herself had been the most crucial piece in a grand conspiracy... the Hidden Jade Banquet.
