Hatred Behind the Vermilion Wall: I Use Myself as Bait to Lure the Powerful

Lin Weiyang, the legitimate daughter of the Chancellor, saw her entire family slaughtered overnight. She survived by chance, hidden among a mountain of corpses, with nothing left in her heart but a burning desire for revenge. After lying low for ten years, she took the name Su Jin and, with peerless beauty, became the star courtesan of Drunken Dream Pavilion, the capital's most famous brothel. Her goal was to get close to the powerful figures responsible for her family's ruin.

With her astonishing talent and breathtaking beauty, she succeeded in attracting Xiao Jue, Prince of Jing'an, a cold and ruthless man wielding power across the court. Xiao Jue was the sharpest blade of the Great Yin dynasty, with immense authority and a calculating mind. A carefully orchestrated encounter set the two on a dangerous path of testing and scheming against each other. Su Jin used Xiao Jue's influence as a stepping stone, following clues to the massacre that had destroyed her family and bringing her enemies down one by one.

Along the way, their relationship evolved from pure exploitation into a fraught entanglement of love and hate. Su Jin discovered that Xiao Jue's past was deeply connected to the massacre. He was both her greatest ally on the road to revenge and a chasm she might never be able to cross.

When the true mastermind, the reigning emperor, finally came to light, Su Jin's identity was completely exposed, leaving her cornered. Xiao Jue faced the ultimate choice between loyalty to his sovereign and love for her. In the end, Su Jin joined forces with the oppressed factions at court to orchestrate a shocking coup. She avenged her family with her own hands, placed the young new emperor on the throne, and ruled from behind the curtain as empress dowager, becoming the true power behind the Great Yin dynasty.