At twenty-eight, Shen Zhiwei transmigrates into a book and becomes the twin sister of eighteen-year-old Shen Yan.
On the first day after arriving, Shen Yan dies suddenly. The next day, she has no choice but to put on her brother's robes, take the dead man's name, and attend a meeting with the advisers at Prince Jing's residence in his place.
A recommendation letter from Xie Daoheng, tutor to emperors of two dynasties and former chief minister, has already reached the prince's residence. It praises the young Shen Yan as "wise beyond his years, with the talent to support a king."
Before he died, Shen Yan left behind the "Dragon-Supporting Merit System" and a final warning: "Don't trust Prince Jing."
Yet the first mission-taker had already locked in Xiao Heng, the doomed Prince Jing of the original novel, whose bid for the throne was fated to end in crushing defeat. None of the first three mission-takers had succeeded. She became the fourth, left to follow a path that had already failed three times.
Xiao Heng had never met Shen Yan. He had intended to test her for the title of "talent fit to support a king." The young man in blue robes entered, graceful as an orchid and a jade tree, with a face beyond description. A few questions about statecraft left him shaken.
First, her talent broke through his defenses. Then, the person herself unsettled him.
With knowledge of the plot and her own ingenuity, she turns his losses into victories and helps him seize military power, rising from the lowest seat to the highest.
But Xiao Heng's admiration for her talent turns into a desire to protect "Shen Yan," and he begins to lose his will to fight.
Shen Zhiwei stages a fake escape, leaving him only one sentence: "If Your Highness won't fight for the throne, we will never meet again." She forces him back into the struggle for succession.
He captures her himself. A kiss, driven by his loss of control, falls upon her. For the first time, she doesn't dodge. Instead, she buys time by placating him: "If Your Highness ascends the throne, I will submit to whatever you wish."
On the night he ascends the throne,
her mission to help him claim it is complete. The mission-taker is free.
The new emperor comes to collect on her old promise, but she turns and runs.
She really runs.
Months later, she is found and brought back. In the warm hibiscus-bedchamber, the palace lanterns are about to go out. Xiao Heng pins her to the bed and leans over her to collect his debt. The instant her collar falls open, his hand suddenly stops.
Theme: A game of the world, half a volume of an emperor's story
