Shen Jingzhe, the legitimate daughter of the Minister of Household Affairs, was frail since childhood and was said to not live to be eighteen years old. After a "critical illness", she discovered that she could intermittently "foresee" some fragmented images of the future. These scenes made her realize that her stepmother and brother, who loved her dearly, were working together to seize the huge dowry and the rumors of "phoenix life" left by her late mother, and planned to "die" of her illness during her wedding ceremony. And the ruthless third prince Xiao Cong, whom she once feared and retreated from, is the only person in the picture who investigates the truth, overthrows the Shen family, and collects her bones after her death. In order to survive and take revenge, Shen Jingzhe decided to use his "foreseeing" ability and Xiao Cong's "hostility" to start a dangerous cooperation with him that tested each other, calculated against each other, and had to join forces. On the surface, she maintains her sickly persona, but secretly plots to drive a wedge between her stepmother and her brother, disrupting the chess game in the court, transforming from a caged bird into a chess player who can compete with Xiao Cong on the chessboard of power. In the end, not only did she save herself and succeed in revenge, but in the turbulent palace struggle, she and Xiao Cong grew from allies who used each other to become the only empress who could overlook the country side by side.
