When Yu Qianqian opened her eyes, she had become the prisoner of Qi Min, the sinister, deposed crown prince. To survive, she started with a small gesture of goodwill: a tin of mint balm. Using her modern knowledge and talent for perfumery, she struggled to stay alive in his blood-soaked world, and even became his most useful hidden blade.
He admired her and made use of her, but his growing possessiveness left her suffocating. Then, while pregnant, she stumbled upon him arranging a marriage alliance for political power. Her heart turned to ashes. She faked her death and fled south to Jiangnan with her child.
Five years later, a mysterious “Lady Su” rose to prominence in the Jiangnan merchants' guild. A woman with a talent for business, she had a remarkably clever little boy at her side. Qi Min, now powerful enough to dominate the court, tracked her down. When he saw the child's face, identical to his own as a boy, a tempest surged in his eyes.
He forcefully drew her back to his side, his voice hoarse. “This time, you're not going anywhere.”
But she calmly met his gaze, using the merchants' guild as her bargaining chip. “Your Highness, we will discuss business and nothing personal.”
From then on, the struggle for the throne was fraught with deadly dangers, and the court was engulfed in intrigue. He waged war on the front lines while she strategized behind the scenes, becoming his irreplaceable ally and shield. On the night of the palace coup, with an army surrounding the city, she publicly threw away the cup of poisoned wine presented to him, then turned to stand back-to-back with him. “Qi Min, if we live, we live together. If we die, we die together.”
Later, the new emperor overruled all objections and left the imperial harem empty. At his coronation, he took her hand before the entire realm and placed half a tiger tally in her palm.
“I'll give you half this empire. And you belong to me.”
