Shen Qiongzhi is a counterfeit county princess of Prince Fu’s household, while Pei Du is an inspectorate official who specializes in exposing impostors.
At a flower-viewing banquet, he saves her from drowning and, in the process, reveals the secret she has kept for sixteen years: “The county princess has a cinnabar mole behind her ear. You don’t.”
She doesn’t beg him to keep quiet. She asks him, “What do you want?”
He wants an old file from the Bureau of Weaving, hidden in Prince Fu’s household. She trades the file for his silence; he uses her secret to set his plans in motion. Two people who have survived by hiding behind disguises strike a deal on the edge of a blade.
Until she discovers that he wants more than the old file. He wants revenge for his family’s slaughter, and her adoptive father is on his list of enemies.
