Shen Qingci, a graduate student in Chinese literature, woke up as a poor, orphaned girl who had been thrown into a dry well.
Her cousin wanted her dead, the clan chief wanted her land, and a sixty-year-old Li Yuanwai was waiting to take her as his second wife.
She opened the letter her father had left behind. It contained only one line: "If anything happens to me, don't investigate."
But she was determined to investigate.
From the dry well to the capital, from poetry gatherings in the pleasure quarters to the power struggles at court, she wielded poetry as a sword and strategy as a shield, closing in step by step on the truth behind the case from three years ago.
There was just one problem: she kept running into too much trouble.
A gentle, devious minister said, "Your poetry reminds me of an old friend."
A wild and unruly young master of the demonic sect said, "Come with me. No one will dare touch you."
An ambitious prince said, "Help me win the succession, and I'll give you half my realm."
A proud, sharp-tongued scholar said, "I accept my defeat by you wholeheartedly."
A quiet, loyal shadow guard said, "My life belongs to you."
Shen Qingci set down her brush and smiled faintly.
"Gentlemen, don't rush. Let me take my revenge first."
Theme: Wield poetry as a blade, break the shackles of fate, and uphold a woman's strength and integrity.
