Shen Wan died on the stone steps behind the Marquis of Jingbei’s estate, with no one there to see her off.
She lived for more than twenty years, married a man who didn’t love her, and endured a marriage as cold as frost and snow. Only after her elder brother died in battle and her family fell into decline did she realize that she had been nothing more than a discarded piece on someone else’s chessboard.
When she opened her eyes again, she had returned to the time before her wedding.
The man who had caused her brother’s death in her previous life was Fourth Prince Zhao Che. He colluded with the enemy, maintained a bandit threat to bolster his own power, and traded two thousand shi of army provisions for Northern Di warhorses, all so he could volunteer for the campaign and use military honors to compete for the throne. In her previous life, she had been completely oblivious, knowing nothing and acting too late to change anything.
This time, she would not marry.
She picks up a bow and enters the archery grounds. She studies the account books and lays her pieces in secret. Together with Pei Xingzhou, a disciple of Master Cangyang, she tracks the traces of roadblocks along the Dingxiang mountain route and finds the falsified provisions records in the Ministry of Revenue’s secret ledger. A token, physical evidence, and the inn’s registration records: three sets of irrefutable proof held by three different parties, all waiting for the autumn hunt, when Zhao Che volunteers for the campaign and they can strike with certainty.
Zhao Che falls, but Sixth Prince Zhao Yan is more sinister, more devious, and better at hiding his tracks. Zhao Yan never acts in public. He manipulates events, wins people over, infiltrates the Imperial Guard, and forges imperial edicts, waiting for the emperor to succumb to years of overwork.
She can’t wait. She sets a trap and forces Zhao Yan to reveal his hand before he is ready. At the Winter Solstice court audience, before all the officials, Emperor Jingwen asks him, word by word, “What did the edict you had the Secretariat drafter write say?”
This time, she will not wait for anyone. She will be the one who watches over the moon.
