Gentle, brilliant top scholar uke vs. bold, domineering general and powerful court official seme | Court intrigue × forbidden, tragic romance × a touch of melodrama
During the Yongning era, political factions fought ruthlessly for power.
Shen Chang'an, son of a disgraced official, and Lin Guli, a heaven-blessed prodigy, were masters of strategy and military affairs respectively. They should have stood side by side at the pinnacle of the court, but after an accident at a palace banquet left them falsely accused of “debauching the imperial palace,” an imperial decree sent them in opposite directions, one north and one south.
He went to the northern frontier, earning military honors with his blood, and was named General Who Pacifies the North at twenty-two.
He headed south to Jiangnan, took the imperial examinations under an assumed name, and came first in the palace exams at twenty-three.
Three years later, they reunited at court: one a rising power with command of the army, the other a celebrated member of the Hanlin Academy.
In public, they were distant as strangers. In their secret letters, however, longing and intricate schemes filled every line.
“Chang'an, if this world has no place for us...”
“Then I'll change the world for you.”
Shen Chang'an infiltrates the Ministry of Justice to investigate an old case, only to discover that the deaths of their fathers implicate both the Eastern Palace and the Chancellor's residence.
As Lin Guli navigates the maelstrom of factional strife, he learns that their separation all those years ago was the result of a carefully laid scheme.
(I can't write blurbs.)
