In the sixth year of Xiande in the later Zhou Dynasty, seventeen-year-old Pei Wantang was married to Cui Shao, the military governor of Weizhou, by his father Pei Wenyuan. This marriage was originally a political transaction - Pei Wenyuan used it to exchange for court protection, but he didn't know that he had already been involved in a deeper chess game. Cui Shao ostensibly submitted to the Song court of the new dynasty, but secretly raised a private army called "Xuanziying" and plotted to restore the old dynasty. At the same time, the imperial court sent envoy Li Congjian to Weizhou, named to appease, but actually to monitor. Pei Wantang met the staff Shen Yuheng in the mansion, got a clue from a poem, and found a burned secret letter in the garden. As she gradually approached the truth, Cui Shao died suddenly overnight, and the white powder at the bottom of the teacup revealed the prelude to the murder. Pei Wantang investigated on his own, but found that his father was the executor of the poisoning, and Li Congjian was the mastermind behind the scenes. She holds the truth but is powerless to fight against it. In the end, she reached a deal with Li Congjian - to take Cui Ying, Cui Shao's daughter, away from Weizhou and never return. Many years later, in a bookstore in a small southern town, the past is like smoke. Some people die with their secrets, and some people live with their secrets. Being alive is a victory in itself.
Purpose: Literary suspense