On her wedding day, her bridal crown and robes are stained red with blood.
Regent Xiao Yan leads the imperial guards into the Duke of Zhenguo’s residence and orders the entire Shen family executed for “colluding with the enemy and betraying the country.” Shen Zhaoning falls from the clouds and is sent to the imperial prison by the very enemy she hates most.
He is her enemy. She hates him to the core.
But he refuses to give her what she wants. He neither kills her nor lets her go, keeping her by his side as the lowliest servant and humiliating her at every turn, never letting her out of his sight.
Until she discovers that his secret chamber is covered with portraits of her, painted over the last ten years. Until she discovers that he comes to her cell in the dead of night just to make sure she is still alive. Until she discovers that the man who destroyed her family keeps the handkerchief she left behind when she saved him beneath his pillow.
“Shen Zhaoning, I saved your life. Only I get to take it.”
She thinks this is the ultimate act of possessiveness. She thinks he is the only opponent she has.
She has no idea that a far greater conspiracy has already woven a net from which there is no escape. Her half-sister, the Crown Prince she has always adored, even the Empress Dowager: everyone sees her as the most crucial piece on the board.
When the truth finally comes to light, she realizes that her true enemy has never been the person standing opposite her, but the people who wear gentle smiles and offer her poisoned wine.
And the man who pushed her into the abyss has long since doomed himself beyond redemption to protect her.
Love and hate, kindness and vengeance: who owes more to whom? Who can really say?
He wants her to live, so she will live just to spite him. And not only will she survive, she will live better than anyone, rise above her sworn enemy, and do whatever she pleases.
