People say the heir to the Prince of Zhenbei has landed in prison and is as good as dead. The legitimate daughter of the Gu family is sent into the household as a bride to bring him good fortune, but she'll only end up buried with him.
When Gu Zhaoning arrives, the first thing she does isn't cry over her marriage. She opens the ledgers.
The first page lists thirty thousand taels in military pay. The second reveals a conspiracy hidden for twenty years: a powerful minister has spent two decades working it, involving half the court, with even the emperor kept in the dark.
Even in the death cell, Xie Zhi remains clear-headed, shackled as he is. He assumes she is merely a spy planted by the court, until he realizes that she is the only one who truly understands the ledger.
Two people pushed toward certain death sit down to settle the accounts, only to discover that they are each other's only way out.
