Xie Zhiwei woke up in another body, kneeling on the blue-brick floor of the ancestral hall. Her clan uncle was forcing her to sign a contract, while the elders watched, waiting for her to accept her fate.
She glanced down at the account book. “These numbers don’t add up.”
At once, the bookkeeper went pale and her clan uncle panicked. No one had expected that this illegitimate daughter, cast aside in a back courtyard for sixteen years, carried the mind of a modern businesswoman. She knew nothing of music, chess, calligraphy, or painting. She knew only one thing: behind every crooked account lay a secret someone wanted kept in the dark.
Secrets were the dynasty’s hardest currency.
From the Xie ancestral hall to the imperial court, she upended everyone’s plans with a single ledger. Empress Dowager Gu set her sights on her, while Grand Tutor Pei couldn’t bear to let her go.
He thought she was a chess piece. She was only waiting until she had everyone’s accounts in her grasp.
When that day came, who among the court officials would dare stand tall before her?
