From financial queen to lowly household slave, Su Li's fall took only the instant it took to transmigrate into a book.
Amid the smoke and grease of the Rongguo Mansion's kitchen, she clutched the memories of her past life and turned every bad debt into a blade.
When Wang Xifeng took the ledger she offered, her gaze sharp as a torch, she said, "From today on, you're mine."
In just three years, Su Li doubled Xifeng's private fortune and became the sharpest abacus in a mansion on the verge of collapse.
She had long anticipated the Jia family's downfall, and was quietly laying the groundwork for trade overseas.
She just hadn't counted on crossing paths with Shui Che, the aloof illegitimate son of Prince Beijing's household.
He caught her hand as she worked the accounts, his sword at her throat. "Su Li, whose side are you really on?"
She smiled. "I'm someone who can help you rise higher with every step, or ruin you beyond redemption."
From mutual probing to entanglements of interest, ledgers and secret letters changed hands in the night fog.
He helped free her from slavery and gave her a chance at life, yet when the imperial edict ordering the Jia family's confiscation arrived, he personally cut off her merchant ships.
On the night the flames devoured the river, she laughed bitterly. "Shui Che, I'll make you pay for this with your life."
Later, before the new emperor:
He was in chains. She appeared in red like blood and threw a map of the vast coastal territories onto the imperial desk.
"Why not give me his life in exchange for a million taels in annual revenue for Your Majesty?"
[Reading Guide]
1. A ruthless financial queen x an ambivalent, righteous-yet-evil heir and secret agent. They love and fight each other, finding sweetness on the edge of a blade.
2. The heroine claws her way up from the bottom. The hero falls apart and rebuilds himself for her, torn between loyalty and love.
3. An intense push and pull between them, a brutal struggle between self-interest and true feelings. The ending is happy, but they bear many scars.
[Before You Read]
1. The hero appears fairly late.
2. The story mainly follows the heroine.
Message: Use business to pursue power and break free of the constraints of the age.
Update quickly! It's really beautiful!
Is Daiyu considered a supporting role? It feels like I didn't even show up.