The First-Rank Legitimate Daughter: Ruling the Imperial Harem

In the first year of Jinghe under the Great Ye, the new emperor ascends the throne and summons talented young women from across the realm to enter the palace and stabilize the court.

Shen Jinsan, daughter of the Northern Pacification General, was once a bright pearl who yearned for the jianghu. But to protect her family's precarious position at court, she conceals her brilliance and steps through the palace's vermilion gates.

Within the inner palace are the dignified and benevolent empress, whose kind words mask a poisonous heart; the favored and overbearing Consort Hua; and the young emperor, moody and calculating at every turn.

From a low-ranking palace lady to an empress dowager who holds the court in her grasp, Shen Jinsan spends twenty years in a game of political intrigue. She loses her closest friend, sacrifices her first love, and ultimately becomes the loneliest victor in a palace whose splendor is a tomb.

“The red walls of the imperial harem are stained with women's blood. And my heart froze to death long ago, in the great snow of the first year of Jinghe.”