She was the empire's most precious jewel: Lan Qi'er, the beloved daughter of Emperor Kangxi. At sixteen, she became a pawn in a political game, sent far away to marry Galdan, leader of the Dzungar, in exchange for a brief peace on the frontier.
Over the next ten years, she used her medical skills to soothe the scars of the grasslands. Through schools and farming, she spread the faint light of civilization, building a bridge of reconciliation between the Qing and the Dzungar. They called her the Moon of Guihua City. Yet beneath that moonlight lay a wound in her heart that would not heal, and the still-burning flames of war in her husband Galdan's eyes.
In the autumn of the thirty-sixth year of Kangxi's reign, the winds of Jomodo brought news of Galdan's death. Before Lan Qi'er could find release, she unexpectedly inherited his bloodstained charge: a jade pendant concealing ancient wisdom, half a tortoiseshell tablet engraved with a secret message, and a bronze key from her own dowry. Galdan entrusted the future of the grasslands to her, explaining that only by finding the other key and unlocking the pendant's secret could she preserve the survival of the tribes.
At that very moment, a secret order from the Forbidden City arrived: obtain the jade pendant at any cost. On one side stood the deep intrigues of her father's empire; on the other, the century-old grudges and suspicions among the grassland tribes. Lan Qi'er suddenly found herself at the eye of the storm.
What she held tightly in her palm was no longer a cold piece of jade, but the fate of civilizations. From a princess manipulated by destiny to a helmswoman steering her own course, she would carve out a path to survival on this land, steeped in youth and love, that transcended hatred and united peoples. With her wisdom, she would outmaneuver her foes; with her courage, she would break the deadlock. Even if she had to sacrifice what she treasured, she would build a home where lambs and wolves could live together, raising an everlasting monument on the ruins of history for herself and all living things.
