“How can a woman possibly hold power?” Faced with the court officials' sneers, Shen Jinghong paused her red brush and looked up, her gaze sharp as a blade. “Then perhaps the honorable gentlemen can tell me: whose strategy put an end to the chaos on the northern frontier last month?”
As the first female minister since the founding of the Great Zhou dynasty, she firmly established herself in a court rife with danger. Her sweeping reforms shook the foundations of the great clans, built over centuries. Assassinations, frame-ups, and slander came one after another, yet one person was always there to keep her safe: Lu Zhengnian, a battle-hardened general who had won countless honors.
He willingly set aside his illustrious military achievements and remained in the capital to support her. When she was driven to the brink before the emperor, he charged into the palace alone and declared in a voice that rang through the hall, “Whatever Jinghong decides, I, Lu Zhengnian, decide.” As he left, he brushed the snow from her shoulder, his touch so gentle it seemed impossible for the same man to be a battlefield demon.
This is a struggle between power and true love. She maneuvers the pieces and stirs the political winds, while he dons his armor and wields his blade to clear her path. As the two are drawn ever deeper into a whirlpool of conspiracy, they will come to understand that even the most dangerous court can become the warmest place to call home.
