Xiao Jingyuan is afflicted with the Blood Owl Curse, with only three years left to live.
To break the curse, cleanse the court, and bring peace to the realm, he hatches a grand plot to fake his own death.
Shen Zhiwei, the legitimate daughter of a military family, becomes the perfect sacrifice after he weighs the pros and cons.
He is certain she is obedient and easy to control, certain that everything is within his grasp.
He believes himself a chess player looking down on all living things. He pushes her into the abyss, coldly watching her struggle to survive in the inner palace.
What he doesn’t know is that this clever, defiant woman saw through all his schemes from the very beginning.
She pretends to fall into his trap, then turns his plan against him. For six months, she quietly lays her own plans beside the coffin of the supposedly dead crown prince, growing into a towering tree he can no longer shake.
The Eastern Palace changes hands, the court is reshuffled, military power falls into her hands, and she learns the secrets of the curse.
The man who once stood above the board, moving the pieces, gradually sinks into the mire and becomes a helpless player in the palm of her hand.
The feelings that surface as they fight side by side, the betrayal after he weighs the pros and cons, the revenge hidden in the antidote: these are her final counterattack, after she has endured all the disappointment she can bear.
Later, when the poison’s effects become unbearable and agony tears through him, he casts aside every shred of an emperor’s dignity and kneels in the snow, begging only for her to look back at him.
Shen Zhiwei gazes at him, wretched and humble, and speaks calmly:
“Your Highness, you taught me how to play chess. You also taught me never to be a pawn for someone else to control.”
This game of mutual hunting began with his cold-hearted scheming and ends with him spending the rest of his life making amends.
