Shen Mucheng, the concubine of the Zhennan Hou Mansion, lived on thin ice in the Hou Mansion for seventeen years after her biological mother died young. The eldest sister refused to enter the palace, so she became a scapegoat. She started from the lowest position of changing clothes and was thrown into the Cheng'en Hall, the most remote part of the harem.
She just wanted to live until she was twenty-five and left the palace. But the death of the palace maid Yulan made her understand that if she doesn't fight, she will die.
In the cold palace, Nanny Su recognized the writing brush and sycamore leaves left by her mother, uncovering a murder case that had been sealed for twenty years. Her aunt Bai Zhi was burned alive under the sycamore tree in the cold palace twenty years ago. Before she died, she wrote the word "injustice" in blood on the window lattice. Her mother witnessed the truth with her own eyes and was poisoned to death shortly afterwards. The man behind this tragedy pointed to the woman at the top of the harem - the Queen Mother.
Deeper secrets are still emerging: the late emperor did not die of illness, the emperor's biological mother was someone else, and Shen Mucheng's bloodline is inextricably linked to all of this.
From cowardice to tenacity, from chess piece to chess player, Shen Mucheng moves step by step in this golden cage. She wants to find out the truth, seek justice for her mother and aunt, and live her own life in this cannibal palace.
This is a palace mystery about power, truth and redemption. The phoenix never dies, it just waits for nirvana.
