Seven years ago, when her mother was burned at the stake at Zhuque Street, Shen Qinglan was the one kneeling at the front of the crowd.
She was Taifu Shen's legitimate daughter and the prince's fiancée, but she could only watch her mother burn to ashes.
Her father "committed suicide" in prison, the Shen family was destroyed, and she was reduced from a jewel in the capital to the lowest-ranking slave in Yeting.
Seven years later, the new emperor Xiao Chengjing issued an order to take her out of Yeting and restore the Shen family status.
Everyone said that His Majesty missed his old friendship and wanted to compensate this former fiancée.
Only Shen Qinglan knows - this is another more exquisite cage.
At the palace banquet, the new emperor asked her in public what reward she wanted.
She lowered her eyes and replied: "My daughter wants to go to the Imperial Palace to be a junior female official who compiles history books."
Everyone was in an uproar.
Later, Xiao Chengjing discovered:
The woman he thought had been smoothed away was using the quietest way to pry into his deepest secret.
In the history books she had compiled, there were always some names circled in ink - they were all the people who framed the Shen family.
In the memorials she copied, there were always "clerical errors" that exposed the corruption case.
She even stirred up trouble in the court with a few "unintentional words" in the ears of his most trusted ministers.
When he finally forced her into the corner, he held her chin and asked:
"Shen Qinglan, what exactly do you want to do?"
She smiled—genuinely for the first time in seven years.
"Your Majesty," her voice was as soft as a sigh, "when you watched the fire burning my mother to death, did you ever think about-"
"From the ashes, a rose with thorns can grow."
