She is his pawn and he is her calamity.
During the Dajing Dynasty, imperial power fell away. Xie Mingheng, the legitimate son of the Xie family, uses the world as a chess game and people's hearts as pawns.
He erased the memory of Shen Qingci, an orphan from the previous dynasty, and personally trained him into a puppet empress. For three years, he controlled the court behind the scenes, while she obeyed his orders in front of the stage. On the surface, he is a monarch and a minister, but in private, he is ambiguous. He thought that everything was under control - including her gradually declining heart.
Until she regained her memory and saw the so-called "truth".
"Xie Mingheng, you used me, lied to me, or even... Did you kill my whole family?"
He couldn't argue. Because defending will put her into a deeper crisis.
So she united with his enemies, launched a palace coup, and personally imprisoned him in the side palace where he taught her to read. She thought she would be happy with her grudges, but she burst into tears every time she raised the sword.
He didn't know that on her way to revenge, every time she fought back she was replicating the strategies he had taught her.
She didn't know that during the days when he was imprisoned by her, he still used his last strength to block the real murderous intention for her.
When Huangque was behind, the real enemy surfaced, and he blocked the poisonous arrow for her, and when he was dying, she understood——
He planned this game of chess for ten years and calculated everything in the world, except for his own heart.
The truth is revealed and the imperial power is restored. She stood at the top of power, but he had retreated to the bottom.
"We all lost," she said.
So she gave up the throne and fled to the south of the Yangtze River.
Three years later, on a misty and rainy stone road, he stood at the door of her courtyard holding an umbrella.
In this game, he was willing to abandon the country and just be her lover.
