Luo Ning, Princess of Yong, died in a deadly trap laid by her closest relatives.
They drained her of every bit of glory she had earned by taking a blade for the Empress Dowager, forcing her to watch as her cousin took over her courtyard and stole her husband’s affection, until she was discarded like trash.
For eighteen years as a ghost, she watched hypocrites rise to wealth and then fall apart.
When she opened her eyes again, she had returned to the day she came back from the south after recuperating. Her cousin was wearing her old clothes, smiling sweetly on the swing that belonged to her.
This time, Luo Ning went straight to the most dangerous place in the capital: the residence of Xiao Yan, the Prince Regent.
“Your Highness needs a blade, and I need someone to back me.” She tore open her bloodstained lapel, revealing the old scar from when she had taken a blade for the Empress Dowager. “I understand better than anyone how to strike at the royal family’s soft spots.”
Xiao Yan rolled his prayer beads between his fingers, his gaze dark. “What do you want?”
“I want those who sucked my blood and devoured my flesh to kneel amid the ruins of what they treasure most, regretting everything.”
And so, the Princess of Yong became the Prince Regent’s sharpest blade.
The people of the Marquis’s household realized that the daughter who had returned weak and sickly had changed. She smiled as she ruined her cousin with false praise, calmly drove wedges between her brothers, and tore off her childhood sweetheart’s hypocritical mask with her own hands. They tried to crush her into the dirt again, only to discover in horror that the most feared shadow in the whole dynasty stood behind her.
When the scars of the past were finally laid bare, the Empress Dowager asked in a trembling voice, “Luo Ning, who are you, really?”
Luo Ning stood atop the highest palace tower, with the all-powerful Prince Regent behind her.
She looked toward the family that had once buried her and smiled sweetly.
“Me? I’m a ghost who crawled back from hell to collect a debt.”
