[More than half the chapters are written. Updates every other day.]
When the imperial heir died young, she stole an empire through a great deception.
Jin Zhaoqian, founding emperor of the Great Sheng, died. The crown prince, Jin Yunzhi, succeeded him and changed the era name to Jingping.
In the fifteenth year of Jingping, the emperor's third son, Jin Xuanhui, died of smallpox.
That night, the rain fell hard.
The empress dowager stood beside his coffin without shedding a single tear.
She asked only one question.
"Is General Hong Jiyue in the capital these days?"
Seventeen years earlier, she had personally persuaded a general of another clan to surrender. He had refused food for seven days. She draped a fur coat over his shoulders, and he removed his official hat.
Seventeen years had passed. He owed her this debt.
"My grandson is dead."
"Bring me that child. He will take his place."
The boy was five years old and bore the surname Hong.
From that night on, he was called Jin Xuanhui.
With that one act, the fate of a family was rewritten and the bloodline of a dynasty was replaced.
The first rule he learned was that he must never cry. The second was that he must never call anyone Father or Mother.
He called his own birth mother Grandmother.
Unexpectedly, the fake prince proved exceptionally gifted and won the emperor's favor. Jin Yunzhi wanted to make him crown prince and heir to the throne.
But his blood was not of the Xuan clan, and every lie has its flaws.
In the eighteenth year of Jingping, Jin Yunzhi grew suspicious of the crown prince's origins and considered deposing him.
The empress dowager and Hong Jiyue struck first.
On the day of the autumn hunt, a cannon exploded.
The only explanation given to the public was four words: He had seen through worldly illusions.
And so the fake Jin Xuanhui ascended the throne.
She had her own son killed by cannon fire to steal the realm for another son.
He ruled an empire, yet lived like a thief who could never sleep peacefully.
But under the shadow of doubts about his origins, this emperor, burdened by the secret of having stolen a realm, gradually grew suspicious and paranoid.
He allowed his sons to fight over the succession, throwing the court into chaos.
Meanwhile, another "phoenix-for-dragon substitution" was unfolding...
Who would ultimately claim the throne: the Xuan clan, the Wu clan, or the You clan...?
They said:
"This realm never belonged to the Xuan clan alone. It belongs to all the people."
"Once we take this step, history will record us as a treacherous empress and rebellious ministers..."
"History? History is written by the victors. Didn't Jin Zhaoqian's history get written over the bones of the previous dynasty?"
"My son must be emperor. Whoever stands in his way will become an accident."
"Xuan Pin" comes from the Dao De Jing: "The gateway of the Mysterious Female is called the root of Heaven and Earth. It seems to endure, and its use is inexhaustible." It means the source from which all things are born. In this book, it refers to the root of power and the beginning of a bloodline conspiracy.
The verdict poem for the Red Tower's Dream series: The Golden Crow falls, the Xuan Pin suffers calamity; the phoenix is exchanged for the dragon, and the Red Tower is cursed; the imperial star goes dark, and the realm is in mourning.
Three lives of rise and fall, all a dream. We are all sinners sinking in a sea of evil.
Theme: The people's will is the mandate of Heaven
