In the eleventh year of Shaoxing, Ye Duan, a gifted woman from a poor family, drowns herself in a river and is reborn. In her previous life, she exposed corruption in the imperial examinations and was falsely accused of cheating. Her entire family was put to death. In this life, she disguises herself as a man and reenters the examination hall under the name “Ye Qingchen.”
From the suspicious sinking of a salt ship to the swapping of examination papers at the tribute examination compound, from the veiled barbs at a night banquet in the Chancellor’s residence to blood splashing across the palace steps before the Hall of Audience, she draws on her memories of her past life and plans each move carefully, carving out a path through the encirclement of the treacherous Chancellor Qin Hui and the Four Great Clans.
But when half a jade pendant points to her true identity as a surviving descendant of the previous dynasty, she faces an ultimate choice: shatter this decaying ladder to power, or become the one moving the pieces herself?
This is a race against time for revenge, and a declaration of war against a system of aristocratic clans that has endured for a thousand years.
