Love, Hate, Life, and Death: A Scheme Within a Scheme

In the eighth year of Chongde, six-year-old Fulin witnesses his mother, Empress Dowager Zhuang, having an affair with his fourteenth uncle, Dorgon, on a rainy night. He vows then and there: “I will take Dorgon’s life.” Breaking free from the confines of conventional historical storytelling, this novel uses “historical fiction” as its surface and an “anatomy of human nature” at its core. It tells how a boy emperor, amid the bloodshed and intrigue of the Forbidden City, changes from an avenger into a prisoner, ultimately becoming the tragic hero of a feudal society. The story gradually unfolds as a sorrowful journey through eighteen years of revenge, meticulously plotted through slow-acting poison, psychological torment, political persecution, and more.