In the second year of Xining, the young emperor was still a child, and Regent Rong Yu held the court entirely in his hands.
After the defeat at Liang Shuo, Wen Ruoqing, husband to Ming Yi, was framed and thrown into prison.
On the day the family was ordered to be searched, heavy snow sealed the gates.
Ming Yi knocked on the door of the Hall of Longevity, her snow-white hem spread across the floor like a lotus.
The man lifted her snow-pale chin. His dark, deep-set eyes seemed to burn with flame.
"Madam Wen, would you care to play a game of chess with me?"
Chess pieces lay scattered across the board and all around it.
Wen Ruoqing returned home. That night, he shared a bed with his wife. Her body was covered in bruises and red marks. The sight nearly drew blood from his eyes. He clenched his fists, hatred sinking deeper as his nails dug into his palms.
But he pretended not to know, and remained her gentle husband.
Who could have guessed that the man in the palace would only grow bolder, summoning her once every half month, then every few days? Whenever his wife returned from the inner palace, she bore many more ambiguous marks on her body.
She said nothing.
She watched her husband's official career rise higher and higher.
*
Ming Yi was afraid to go to the Hall of Longevity, afraid of the inscrutable face across the chessboard, concealed beneath the colored-glass lanterns.
The cold chess pieces struck her skin one by one. They didn't hurt, but made her tremble.
The lives of Ming Yi and the entire Wen family were in the Regent's hands.
She knew she shouldn't defy him, yet he had forced her husband to divorce her. On the day she was cast aside, she had wanted to die.
He cut off every path she had left, then took her into the palace and kept her hidden away, where no one could catch so much as a glimpse of her.
Reader's Guide:
1. The female lead has had previous partners; the male lead is inexperienced. Coercive romance, happy ending.
2. A ruthless, despicable man who means what he says, with few words, x a heroine with strong traditional moral values. The author's first attempt at this type, a self-indulgent passion project.
Theme: Cherish the present.
