Seven years ago, there was a fire in the East Palace, and the life and death of the former prince Xiao Dingchan was unknown.
Seven years later, a layman named Shichen came to Hanshan Temple in Chang'an. He was proficient in Buddhism and military affairs. He was invited by the Queen Mother to give lectures in the palace, and was treated as a guest by the Prime Minister. No one knew his true identity—except Shen Guiren, who listened to his sermon through a bamboo curtain.
Shen Prajna has been in the palace for a year and is as quiet as a shadow. She is the daughter of a guilty general and a pawn stuffed into the harem by the Cui family. The queen tested her, the concubines excluded her, but the emperor Zhao Huan was extremely gentle to her. She thought no one remembered who she was. Until Master Shichen appeared, the voice that made her tremble all over sounded again from beside the book table in the East Palace seven years ago, from the firelight and the pool of blood.
He lives.
But he stood in front of her, called her "donor", called her "noble", and said the most distant words in the most polite tone. He walked side by side with the enemy who killed his father in Shangshu Province, exchanged glasses for wine in the Prime Minister's Mansion, and passed her in the corridor without even stopping to look at her.
Shen Prajna was waiting for an answer. Xiao Dingchan was playing a game of chess. Zhao Huan is guarding a person. Pei Changgeng, on the other hand, was checking for a chess piece whose origin was too clean.
This is a reunion that spans seven years, and it is also a chess game that no one can escape unscathed. When the truth emerges, when the scars of the past are reopened - who can keep their original intentions, and who has changed beyond recognition?
Purpose: In the gap between power and hatred, guard the last inch of light that refuses to be extinguished.