In the first half of her life, Shen Qingyan was the envy of all the capital: the legitimate eldest daughter of the Duke of Zhenguo’s household, the late empress’s niece, childhood sweetheart to Emperor Yong’an Xiao Heng, and the undisputed future empress.
Three days before her wedding, her stepmother forced her to swallow a poison that robbed her of her voice, broke both her legs, and threw her into the imperial mausoleum to die.
To the public, the duke’s household announced that their legitimate daughter had died suddenly. Her gentle and virtuous half-sister, Shen Qingrou, took her place, ready to enter Fengyi Palace with a lavish bridal procession stretching ten li.
Everyone said Shen Qingyan was dead, her body nowhere to be found.
But they didn’t know that after three years in the imperial mausoleum, she had clawed her way out of a pile of corpses. The poison had worn off, her broken bones had healed, and her eyes were sharpened with icy blades. Now she had returned to the glittering capital.
Three days before the empress’s enthronement ceremony, she stormed through the vermilion gates of the duke’s estate, covered in blood.
Her half-sister panicked. Her stepmother trembled. The entire capital was stunned.
Shen Qingyan sneered.
You’ll pay for what you owe me, with your lives and your blood.
You want to be empress?
Ask me, the rightful one, if I’ll allow it!
Later, the cold and taciturn emperor smashed the golden bricks of Fengyi Palace and shielded her behind him, madness plain in his eyes.
“My empress has always been her alone.”
