The Palace's Hidden Game

Beneath imperial power, everything is part of a game of chess.

She thought she was breaking out of the game, never realizing she had stepped into it;

he thought he was setting the board, never realizing he was one of its pieces.

On the surface, the Great Jing Dynasty is peaceful and prosperous, but beneath it, dark currents rage.

The Crown Prince is benevolent? That's just a mask of hypocrisy.

The Second Prince is arrogant and overbearing? He's a puppet on strings.

The chancellor is neutral? He's a hunter watching the tigers fight.

And the carefree Prince Jing, Xiao Jue, who delights in mountains and rivers and takes no interest in state affairs, is the most unfathomable variable of all.

Shen Qingci, the legitimate daughter of a family of civil officials, is renowned for her literary talent throughout the capital, yet she is no more than a clever piece on her grandfather's chessboard. To protect her family, she seeks out Xiao Jue and makes a three-year pact: she will help him claim the throne, and he will protect her entire family.

Their contract states, “No personal feelings, only mutual benefit.” Yet every handkerchief he offers in a moment of mortal danger and every cold arrow she takes for him is carving the words “allies” into a vow weightier than love.

When the Crown Prince is deposed, the Second Prince's parentage becomes a mystery, and the chancellor bares his fangs, they think victory is within reach

only to discover that every chess game is a mere facade.

The emperor's mute servant is the last prince of the previous dynasty;

the heroine's closest friend is a blade that has lain in wait for ten years;

and the loyal, patriotic Grand Tutor Shen is the one who has woven the whole web.

The mystery of their origins, the curse in their blood, the plot to restore the old dynasty

when Xiao Jue discovers that the truth he has pursued all his life is nothing but a lie woven by his birth mother with her death;

when Shen Qingci discovers that her meeting with Xiao Jue was merely part of her grandfather's legacy of “using evil to suppress evil”...

Should they keep playing this game of chess?