Chess Vine

The master physician Xiao Qiteng lives in seclusion, yet became famous in Bianjing at a young age. People have described her this way: "A peerless hand at making medicine." As a pharmacist whose pills are worth a fortune, Xiao Qiteng holds a position of great distinction. Her beauty is unmatched, and the medicinal ingredients she processes often produce twice the effect with half the effort. But no one knows she has another name, one burdened with a terrible secret and a blood feud dating back ten years.

Ten years ago, during the reign of Emperor Jing in the Nanzhao era of prosperity, the emperor became obsessed with attaining immortality. Hearing that the Zhao family's pharmaceutical skills were unmatched throughout Nanzhao, he appointed them as the imperial supplier of medicines, responsible for preparing the ingredients needed to make elixirs. The Zhao family's youngest daughter was the most talented. She worked alongside her father in the medicine workshop, helping prepare medicinal ingredients, while the masters of the trade did all they could to support her. Who could have guessed that more than a hundred members of the Zhao family and its pharmaceutical business would be framed for producing poisoned ingredients, leading to Emperor Jing's death? The youngest Zhao daughter was rescued from a mountain of corpses and secretly raised in the mountains. She watched her closest family die one by one before her eyes: her parents, playmates, mentors, and friends... She could neither forget nor dare to forget the massacre of her family! The youngest Zhao daughter concealed her identity, studied diligently, and tested medicines on herself. At last, she became famous throughout the land under the name Xiao Qiteng.

Ten years later, Xiao Qiteng leaves the mountains and returns to Bianjing, embarking on a path of revenge. Facing Qiguan Hongyi, son of the Left Chancellor, who was once betrothed to her and has yet to marry; Kangping, the Grand Princess who was her closest childhood friend; and everyone she once knew, she can only suppress her longing. Working from the shadows, she sets off a storm that shakes the realm. In the end, she helps a wise ruler ascend the throne and clears the names of the Zhao family and the more than one hundred innocent lives from the pharmaceutical trade who were unjustly killed.