At seven, she donned her father's imperial crown and robes, and from then on lived as a man under the name Ying Ji.
He was a poor young scholar who walked three hundred li from Weiyuan County to sit for the examinations. With nothing but his brush, he turned Yongzhou's finances from deficit to profit, and his reputation shook the Nine Provinces. He regarded her as a kindred spirit and willingly became the blade in her hand, never realizing that behind those calm eyes in the imperial study lay an identity she could not reveal, and a secret she dared not speak.
When the imperial decree was issued, he thought his ruler had taken away the fiancée he had waited years for. He did not know it was a gamble meant to conceal the truth. He hated her. He hated her so much that on the night of the coup, he handed his trump card to Ying Cheng, who held sway over the northern frontier, and cleared the rebels' path straight to the imperial palace.
On the night she gave birth, the Grand Empress Dowager summoned him to the detached palace. He thought it was a trap. The moment he pushed open the bedchamber door, he saw a woman on the couch, her long hair loose and her belly swollen as she labored. It was the same face: Ying Ji, the mysterious woman with whom he had once spent a night, and the mother of his child. Just hours earlier, he had helped the rebels replace the guards at all four gates of the imperial palace.
Twelve years later, their son found a yellowed secret letter in a drawer in the imperial study. He told no one and began secretly investigating the person who sent him an inkstone engraved with his name every year on his birthday.
Huyan Tu's poisoned arrows are already trained on their targets in the shadows. Amid the snow and wind of the northern frontier, Ying Cheng still keeps watch alone. At the foot of Long Mountain, a dead branch lies buried in the earth, waiting for spring. And the secrets buried deepest have yet to break through the soil.
The next story takes place in Jizhou, where the greatest warlord of the Nine Provinces meets the woman he can never have. We hope you'll keep reading.
Theme: Even when trapped in shackles, one can break free over a lifetime and live as one's true self.
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