In the twenty-sixth year of Jianxi, Emperor Jianxi fell gravely ill and took to his bed. To pray for his recovery and long life, he granted a general amnesty throughout the realm.
In the late autumn of that same year, the Duke of Wei's residence in the capital welcomed back the daughter who had married away eight years earlier, along with her young son.
From the time Su Qing could remember, her world had consisted only of the vast snowy plains of far-northern Liaodong.
Then, when she was six, an imperial edict granting amnesty arrived from the capital. Her gravely ill father clasped her hand tightly and told her he wanted the Su family to return to its place among the literati.
And so the Duke of Wei's residence in the capital gained a young male cousin named Su Qing.
To fulfill her father's final wish, Su Qing passed every trial on the imperial examination path, finally earning the top score and making her name known throughout the land.
Having completed her task, Su Qing, a recent graduate of the Hanlin Academy, felt wonderfully free. She was just about to find a comfortable government post where she could coast through the rest of her life when she discovered that everything was only just beginning.
There were undercurrents in officialdom, a battle for the throne among the imperial princes, and what gave her the biggest headache of all: the increasingly suspicious gaze of her superior.
#Every day, teetering on the edge of having my secret identity exposed#
#Has the Crown Prince been turned gay today?#
#I, the capital's number-one young gentleman, accept payment#
