Chess Vine

The physician and master healer Xiao Qiteng lived in seclusion, yet had become famous in Bianjing at an early age. People described Xiao Qiteng this way: “A master of medicine, second to none.” As a pharmacist whose pills were worth a fortune, Xiao Qiteng held a position of great esteem. She was breathtakingly beautiful, and the medicinal ingredients she prepared were often twice as effective as expected. But no one knew she had another name, one that carried an immense burden and concealed a shocking secret: a blood feud dating back ten years. Ten years ago, during the prosperous years of the Nanzhao Empire, Emperor Jing became obsessed with attaining immortality. He heard that the Zhao family, a renowned clan of pharmacists, had unmatched skills throughout Nanzhao, and ordered them to become the imperial suppliers of medicinal ingredients for the preparation of elixirs. The Zhao family's youngest daughter was the most gifted. She worked alongside her father in the medicine room, helping prepare medicinal ingredients, while the masters of the family's apothecary business did everything they could to support her. But then the entire family business, with more than a hundred people, was framed for making poisoned ingredients, which led to Emperor Jing's death. The Zhao family's youngest daughter was rescued from a mountain of corpses and secretly raised in the mountains. She watched her own parents, playmates, mentors, and friends die one by one before her eyes. She could neither forget nor dare forget the massacre of her family! The youngest Zhao daughter concealed her identity, devoted herself to her studies, and tested medicines on herself. At last, she became famous throughout the land as Xiao Qiteng. Ten years later, Xiao Qiteng emerged from the mountains and returned to Bianjing, embarking on her path of revenge. She faced Qi Guan Hongyi, son of the Left Chancellor, who had once been betrothed to her and remained unmarried; Kang Ping, the Grand Princess who had been her closest childhood friend; and everyone she had once known. She could only suppress her longing and secretly set plans in motion, stirring up a storm. In the end, she helped a wise ruler ascend the throne and cleared the names of the Zhao family and the more than one hundred innocent people from the apothecary business who had died unjustly.