On my wedding day, the young emperor I had raised from scratch surrounded my estate with his iron cavalry.
Dressed in a black robe embroidered with golden dragons, he strode across the courtyard full of panicked guests and came to me, pulling down the round fan in my hand.
The guests fell silent, afraid to so much as breathe. My new husband was so terrified his face had gone deathly pale.
He bent down and pressed a punitive kiss to my lips. Smiling at me, he spoke as gently as a lover whispering, yet his words chilled everyone to the bone.
“Elder Sister.”
“You taught me how to scheme for the throne, how to balance the court, how to become an emperor.”
“Why didn’t you teach me what to do when you no longer wanted me… so I wouldn’t go mad?”
It all began five years ago. Reborn into the past, I found myself lodging at the Marquis of Wuning’s estate. There, I met a gloomy, silent “cousin.” When I discovered his true identity, I resolved to forge him into the sharpest blade, use him to slaughter everyone who had wronged me in my previous life, and overthrow this devouring imperial power.
I carefully wove a net called “love and dependence,” watching him go from wary and guarded, to trusting me completely, and then… falling so deeply in love that he could no longer escape.
I thought I had everything under control.
Until he ascended the throne and I decided to retire after completing my mission, intending to marry someone else. He led his army to seize me on my wedding day and imprisoned me in the imperial palace, his eyes churning with a possessiveness and madness I had never seen before.
Only then did I realize
In this game of chess, begun with revenge and played through manipulation, I had calculated every human heart and plotted across the realm.
But I had failed to account for the wolf cub I had raised myself, who had long since turned the tables on me.
And in the end, this game trapped not only him, but me as well.
