Shen Qingxu, the legitimate daughter of the Duke of Dingguo’s household, was taught by her mother from childhood: “You are not Shen Qingxu. You are the dignity of the Duke of Dingguo’s household.” At fifteen, she entered the palace to be considered as a potential consort, only to learn that she was nothing but a pawn sent by her family into the imperial palace. Through the years in the palace, she watched the women around her scheme against one another, and late-night whispers through the walls made it clear that she had long since become a target for everyone. At a banquet in the Western Garden, she glimpsed Xiao Zhi, heir to the Prince of the Northern Border. Taken hostage in the south as a child, he had returned to sit alone in a corner, ignored by everyone. Two people with no control over their own lives exchanged a distant glance amid the dim lights, planting the seed of a fated bond.
Over the years that followed, they endured a palace coup, imprisonment, and separation by life and death. Xiao Zhi and Shen Qingxu went from gazing at each other from afar to standing side by side, from having no say in their fates to living for themselves at last. Gu Changyan loved in silence until the end of his life; Su Wan found a place to belong after she transmigrated; and the twelve flower maidens each endured their own trials of love. When snow blankets the courtyard, watch how they break free of their shackles and live as themselves in an age ruled by strict convention.
