On Vermilion Bird Street in Bianjing, the morning light was faint, and the sweet scent of honey cakes mingled with the rising murmur of voices.
Shen Zhiwei tended her painted-fan stall, her fingertips capturing the bustle of everyday life: the green of sprouting plants, the liveliness of fish in the market, and, hidden in her paintings, deadly secret marks.
When they parted years ago, she thought that if she ever saw Xie Qingci again, he would be the top scholar, announced at the Golden Hall. She never expected him to be a hidden blade, entering the Censorate, reopening old cases, and stirring up turmoil throughout the capital.
[You use the marketplace as your canvas to portray every facet of life, and gain a sudden insight: The Art of Concealing a Blade in a Painting!]
[You use plants and trees for color to recreate a map of the Yellow River, and gain a sudden insight: The Brush That Founds an Empire!]
[You use old letters as a thread to unravel a powerful minister's schemes, and gain a sudden insight: The Art of Reading Hearts!]
[You use yourself as bait and join forces with the three-time top scholar, and gain a sudden insight: The Art of Turning the Court Upside Down!]
Princess Anping: Zhiwei, amid the capital's fleeting splendor, the warm light in your paintings is the most moving thing of all.
Xie Qingci: Everyone in the world cares that I came first in the palace examination. Only you remember the wound on my wrist and the letters from those six years.
The powerful Lu family minister: I thought she was just a little girl selling paintings. How did she manage to tear apart a century of the Lu family's power?
She had thought bringing down the Lu family would mean the dawn had finally broken.
But she did not know that the hidden hands, seated high above and lurking in the shadows, were baring greedy fangs at this painting of the land. The Lu family was only a pawn.
See how a humble court painter wields her brush like a blade and stands shoulder to shoulder with the top scholar to paint a desperate counterattack across the ink-washed capital!
