The Prime Minister's Legitimate Daughter Makes a Comeback by Playing the Game

Shen Qingci, the legitimate daughter of the Chancellor's household, discovers on her coming-of-age day that she is living inside a massive game of chess. She is a pawn her father uses to balance the court, a pawn the Empress Dowager uses to keep the imperial harem in check, and a pawn her betrothed uses to compete for the throne. More ironically still, she has always believed she was fighting back, never realizing that even her rebellion was a script written by the players. When she meets a mad old palace servant in the Cold Palace, the woman says, "You look so much like I did back then. I, too, was a pawn who thought she was awake." At that moment, Shen Qingci decides to leave the chessboard and become a player herself.