The jade records sink beneath the dust, their wrongful case left unresolved, and the entire Shen family is brought down.
Overnight, the old case is erased in its entirety. No trace of the Shen family remains in the world.
The sole survivor, Shen Yanci, conceals her identity and enters the palace bureaucracy as a low-ranking female official.
She hides her talents and all her hatred and cunning. She neither seeks the limelight nor looks for shortcuts, quietly biding her time amid mountains of old case files.
In this imperial capital, there is no such thing as pure good or evil.
The Liu family wields ritual and law like a blade. Seated in the grand hall and in charge of discipline, they use the most respectable rules to weave the tightest web.
Those around her are each trapped in their own predicament: some are bound hand and foot by their family’s honor and disgrace, some are meek and timid, treading carefully at every step, and some wear kind smiles while hiding deadly leverage in their palms.
No one will descend from the heavens to save her. No one will show her special favor.
In this desperate place, standing out is a death sentence. Only concealing her abilities can keep her safe.
She has only a few scattered clues from the old case, with no evidence, no powerful allies, and no way back.
She seeks neither an overnight reversal nor a thunderous reckoning that shakes the world.
She simply stays half a step ahead at every turn, unraveling plots in the cracks between the rules, protecting others amid surging undercurrents, and quietly shifting the course of every deadly scheme that comes rushing her way.
The peace of a flourishing age is an illusion. The court is a chessboard, and every piece is trapped.
She endures and lies low in the mire, guarding the faintest chance of survival and gathering fragments of the truth.
When the mist finally clears and daylight breaks, she will use the strength she has hidden within herself to clear her family’s name and help the new emperor secure the vast realm.
Hee hee hee hee