[Historical Romance + Strong Female Lead + Playing the Fool to Catch the Tiger + Star-Crossed Love + White Moonlight]
Among the noble ladies of the capital: Have you heard? Jiang Heng, the prime minister's legitimate daughter, is a sickly girl who wouldn't even step on an ant.
Jiang Heng (bundled in a fox-fur cloak, coughing up blood): The sisters are right. The imperial physician says I won't live another three years.
In a secret prison, she pressed a dagger to the throat of Chu Heng, the powerful prince of the realm, and said coolly, “Your Highness, if you keep investigating, I'm afraid I'll have to make sure you never speak again.”
The prince chuckled. Instead of dodging, he leaned three inches closer. “Miss Jiang, that blood you've been coughing up for three years is loquat syrup mixed with cinnabar, isn't it?”
Jiang Heng: ...I was careless. I'd forgotten he was an expert at interrogation.
From then on, they silently understood each other: she pretended to faint in court to win sympathy, while he publicly accused her of “weakening the country with her frail health”; she snuck into his manor at night to steal account books, and he deliberately left the door open for her.
His subordinate couldn't take it anymore. “Master, which one of you is actually hunting the other?”
Chu Heng leisurely poured tea. “Why rush? I'm not done playing yet.”
Then a palace coup came, and she led troops to surround his manor.
He stood at the steps, his expression as calm as if he'd been waiting a long time. “So you're the Crown Prince's woman.”
She gripped the reins so tightly her nails dug into her palm. “I always was.”
He smiled, stepped back, and revealed the jade hairpin she'd left behind three years ago, tucked in his sleeve. “Then take this back.”
No one knew that the price the Crown Prince had promised her was that, once everything was done, she would personally kill Chu Heng, avenging her entire family.
And in a hidden compartment in Chu Heng's study lay a yellowed dossier. It read:
“In the seventh year of Yonghe, the Jiang family was accused of colluding with the enemy. Presiding judge: Chu Heng.”
He had passed the judgment himself.
