With one marriage contract, she went from being a pawn to being discarded. In the marquis's household, the second branch watches like a hawk, and embezzlement is rampant. Everyone expects Shen Qingci, a concubine-born daughter married in as a substitute, to wither away in the depths of the household.
But she is determined to wield the account books like a blade, tally every shortfall, and expose every parasite.
Her new husband, a drunk and dissolute young lord, always seems to appear just when she's in danger. He murmurs through the window, a sharp edge beneath the smell of wine: “Madam, this water is too deep for you to wade into.”
When her younger brother is poisoned, assassins strike at night, and a smuggling plot on the border comes to light, she finally realizes that the seemingly frivolous heir apparent, Xie Linyuan, is in fact the mastermind working from the shadows.
From discarded substitute bride to a noblewoman of the first rank, from household accounts to power over the imperial court. Amid bloodshed and chaos, he takes her hand. “I offer you the realm as my bride price. Madam, will you rule this land with me?”
