In the twenty-third year of Yuanjia, the prince's rebellion caused a bloody storm. The whole Shen family was convicted, and the Taifu Shen Mingyuan and his son Shen Yanzhi were beheaded. Shen Yan's wife He Wanqing died of illness, and the youngest son Shen Qinghuai and the eldest daughter Shen Wanning were buried in Yeting. The handkerchief embroidered with lotus leaves left by Shen's mother and the words "the bones of the Shen family cannot be broken" and the grandfather's words "the family can be broken, but the heart cannot be broken" became Wan Ning's only fire to survive the cold winter in Yeting.
From the rough maid who soaked her fingers in the clothes bureau, to the low-level female official who sorted the clothes in the Shangfu bureau, to the high-ranking maid serving the emperor in Yeting, she has tempered her forbearance and sharpness in the ice and fire. In order to overturn the case, she secretly collected clues with the help of the Seventh Prince's power. She thought she could only use them, but she sank step by step under the pull of power and true love.
When the emperor was dying, she successfully reversed the verdict, but she didn't want to stop there. Reversal of the verdict was just the starting point. What she wanted was to have power over the government - from a noble concubine to a queen, and finally to a queen mother who listened to politics behind the curtain. She spent half her life climbing to the top of power, but only when Chu Zhaoheng died of illness did she realize that the gentle and jade-like prince had already planted a root of love in her heart.
When she was dying, she clutched her mother's lotus handkerchief and looked at the flying snow outside the window, as if she had returned to the night when they first met Ye Ting. She finally understood: above the Phoenix Tower, she was walking alone, power could not fill the hole in her heart, and the unspoken "I love you" became a regret that could not be repaired forever.
This is a story about revenge, power and love. Shen Wanning spent his whole life writing legends, but at the top he understood loneliness - it turns out that the sharpest knife is the belated affection; the heaviest shackles are the missed sincerity
