The Treacherous Beauty

After her father dies, Liu Xi’s maternal uncle’s family takes everything from her and forces her to marry a man her cousin didn’t want. Her mother-in-law makes life difficult, her husband is cold, and even her newborn child is killed. She completely loses her mind, kills her husband Huo Ling with her own hands, and takes the entire Huo family down with her. When she opens her eyes again, she’s back at the time of her father’s death. Her uncle once again urges her mother to split the family and cut ties, and Liu Xi decisively severs all ties with them. She wants to see just how satisfying life can be when she’s branded an unfilial daughter and sits atop a fortune. After getting away from the toxic people in her life, she rises above the crowd and becomes a reserve female official. She wins people over on all sides and rises steadily through the ranks. At fourteen, she is promoted to a sixth-rank female official and assigned to serve the empress. Liu Xi thinks she’s already wicked enough, having killed noblewomen and toyed with princesses, but it turns out everyone around her is wicked too. Men and women alike are consumed by power and ambition. They scheme, plot, and manipulate, all hoping to rise to the highest ranks and control the court. The emperor weighs his options, factions vie for power, and take one step back and you won’t even be qualified to serve as a pawn. Female officials in the inner palace, corrupt ministers in the outer court. With imperial power above them all, it remains to be seen who will outmaneuver whom.