Six years in the palace, and Pei Yichen was still a virgin.
Everyone said she was the daughter of a condemned official and should be grateful just to be alive. She was happy to play the coward and stay invisible in the harem, planning to lie flat and wait for death.
Until one day, she napped behind a rockery and overheard the emperor plotting to get rid of the Empress Dowager.
Oh no. She’d seen something she shouldn’t have.
The emperor saw her too, his eyes cold enough to kill.
On impulse, Pei Yichen dropped to her knees and blurted out, “Your Majesty, I’m best at reading people. Could you use someone to help you see through their hearts?”
The emperor fell silent.
Then she was named a Zhaoyi.
From then on, Pei Yichen’s motto changed from “If I can lie down, I won’t sit up” to “If I can act, I won’t be sincere.” In public, the emperor was a foolish ruler, but with her he tested her at every turn. In public, she was useless, but behind the scenes she turned the entire harem upside down.
The Empress Dowager wanted to use her as a pawn, the emperor wanted her as a blade, Consort De wanted to use her as a stepping stone, and her womanizing cousin was eyeing her man.
Pei Yichen trusted no one. She had only one goal: clear her father’s name and restore the Pei family’s honor.
Then one night, the emperor climbed through her window to bring her medicine, and she realized that the man she’d always wanted to use seemed to look at her a little differently.
And her own heartbeat seemed a little off, too.
A condemned official’s daughter who only wanted to lie flat was forced to become the MVP of the harem power struggle.
A young emperor who pretended to be mad and foolish had finally found someone who understood his heartbeat.
In this game of chess, it was still anyone’s guess who was moving the pieces and who was a pawn.
She understood people’s hearts; he understood how to endure. Two masters of disguise...
