[Fake and true heiresses + stolen destiny and face-swapping + revenge and face-slapping + merciless slaughter]
Weisheng Wanyao was the most beloved little princess of the Dali Kingdom. When she was four, she found a little beggar huddled in a corner of the Cold Palace wall and brought her back.
The little beggar knelt before her and said, “Princess, I'll be good to you for the rest of my life.”
The princess believed her. She shared her fine clothes and delicious food, had her join her in studying the classics, and treated her like a real older sister.
When the princess was five, the little beggar found a Taoist priest, stole her phoenix destiny, switched her face, and sold her to a salt merchant in Yangzhou.
“From now on, I'm Yun Qingzhi.”
Ten years as a courtesan, ten years in hell.
The real princess crawled out of hell, covered in wounds. She took the salt merchant's enormous fortune and returned to the capital under the assumed name Weisheng Wanyao.
At the fake princess's coming-of-age ceremony, she spent a fortune, and twenty chests of rare treasures left every court official gaping in disbelief.
The greatest scholar in the land wrote poems for her, the Four Great Beauties followed her lead, and even the man the fake princess had secretly loved for three years eagerly came to curry favor with her.
The fake princess was consumed by jealousy. She sent assassins, spread rumors, and allied herself with Taoist priests. With every move she made, she sank deeper into the trap the real princess had carefully laid.
She thought she was still competing with a hermit's daughter for a man's affections. She didn't know that her rival had never come for a man. She had come for her life.
Ten years had passed. The stolen phoenix destiny had to be returned.
The night the fake princess stole her fate, thunder roared, and no one heard a five-year-old girl's screams.
Ten years later, she returned in finery, stirring up a storm across the capital. This time, I'm here to send you to your death.
Sure enough, the fake princess sought out the Taoist priest from all those years ago again. “I want her destiny.”
The subject matter is novel, the writing is good, the plot is not overwhelming, and it is worth reading.