A Letter Concealing a Startling Phoenix

[The day his stand-in died, he crowned a new empress]

[Three years later, enemy cavalry swept to the border, and the female commander at their head removed her mask]

[The entire court fell to its knees in terror, and the emperor on the throne went mad]

He once called her “an ugly imitation,” made her drink poison and suffer humiliation, and sent her to die in place of his beloved. On the day she died, he didn’t shed a single tear.

But when the enemy cavalry reached the city gates, the legendary commander, famed for her ruthless decisiveness, tore off her mask. The whole city was stunned. She was the discarded empress he had “buried” in the imperial mausoleum three years ago!

In court, eyes bloodshot, he tumbled from the throne and held up the blood-written letter she had left behind, trembling as he pleaded, “I offer you the empress’s throne and the whole realm as your bride price. Please…”

She lifted his chin with the tip of her sword and smiled faintly. “Your Majesty, I’ve returned to take your empire as my bride price.”