Xie Rongjin, the legitimate daughter of the Duke of Zhenguo's household, was brilliant from childhood. At fifteen, she defied everyone to marry Lu Heng, a poor scholar, and helped him rise to power at court. Ten years later, she was an empress, but her younger sister Xie Wanying and Emperor Lu Heng betrayed her. Lu Heng deposed her for being “untalented, immoral, jealous, and childless,” while Xie Wanying even cut their premature child from her womb right before her eyes. Only as she lay dying did Xie Rongjin learn that her entire life had been spent paving the way for Xie Wanying, and that her beloved grandmother and loyal bodyguard had both died because of her.
As the last of her blood drained away, she returned to the age of fifteen, consumed by hatred. This time, she had yet to marry, Lu Heng was still the timid scholar who fawned over her, and Xie Wanying remained the considerate little sister everyone adored. Xie Rongjin tears off her gentle facade and takes up the flames of vengeance, swearing to make every one of her enemies pay in blood. But as she carefully advances her plans, she discovers someone she overlooked in her previous life: Xiao Jue, the taciturn and ruthless commander of the Imperial Guards. The way he looks at her seems to conceal a secret she was never meant to know.
