Qingdai Feeds the Wolf

This is a battle of cultivation that begins with scheming and ends in true love. It is the legend of five women who rise from the inner chambers to the imperial court and reshape their age. She is the empress's trusted confidante, Marquis Jing'an, with power over the court yet shackled by constraints. He is the imprisoned son of a disgraced minister. Chosen by her one day, he ties his life and death to hers from then on. He thinks he is her pawn, and is willing to die for her. She thinks she has merely raised a wolf cub, unaware that he has already weathered half the court's bloody storms for her from the shadows. When she is falsely accused of rebellion and thrown into death row, he leads three thousand death soldiers in a bloody assault on the execution grounds. When the new reforms are blocked and women's imperial exams are condemned across the land, she and her four sisters join forces to carve a path through a world of men. Once, they were: A merchant's daughter, treated by her family as goods to be sold to the highest bidder. An orphan from a military family, driven out by her comrades despite her many battlefield achievements. A physician's daughter, whose extensive medical knowledge could only be put to use writing prescriptions in the back courtyard. A hostage from the imperial clan, sent to the marquis's residence as a pawn to await death. Later: She became the first woman to lead a merchant guild in the dynasty. She became the first female general to be granted a marquisate. She became the first female deputy commissioner of the Imperial Medical Bureau. She became the first queen in history. And she and he, from master and servant to sovereign and subject, from scheming to deep love, ultimately stood together at the height of power and opened with their own hands the door sealed for a thousand years.