In a fictional Ming-Qing era, she wields control of the grain transport routes like a blade, the sharpest weapon in Jiangnan.
Shen Zhaoning is reborn at the age of sixteen.
That year, her stepmother has yet to swallow her dowry, her half-sister has yet to learn to call her “elder sister” to her face and stab her in the back, and her betrothed, Pei Yanzhi, is still the gentle top scholar everyone praises.
That year, the maternal relatives of the imperial family have yet to target the Shen family, the Third Prince is still secretly plotting for the throne, and the emperor is old and ailing. Civil officials, military officers, and the imperial relatives are locked in a three-way power struggle, with dangerous currents swirling beneath the surface.
And the Shen family, controlling thirty percent of Jiangnan’s grain transport, is a choice cut of meat everyone wants a bite of.
In her previous life, she died without seeing through the game.
In this life, she will take the Shen family off the game board and become the one who moves the pieces.
She will root out the family’s parasites, reclaim control of the grain routes, and make her stepmother kneel and cough up every last ounce of silver.
She will stir up the court, make the imperial relatives tear each other apart, and leave the Third Prince with nothing to show for his efforts.
She will make Pei Yanzhi watch as she cuts off, one by one, the lifelines of the rebellion he has painstakingly built.
As for Gu Changdu
The only man who sent her a letter in her previous life, he appears to be the adopted son of a military marquis stationed on the northern frontier, but is actually a descendant of the former dynasty living under an assumed name.
At first, Shen Zhaoning only wanted to use him.
But then he took three blades for her.
Then he bore every open attack and hidden arrow aimed at her in court.
Only later did she learn, the man lived in hell, yet saved his last ray of light for her.
