A Plain Inquiry into Chang’an

Five years ago, Su Wan, the legitimate daughter of a military family, poured all her clan's resources into helping Xiao Jingyan ascend the throne. In return, she received an edict deposing her as empress and a deadly plot that condemned her entire family to execution. On a snowy, bitterly cold night, she took a drug that made her appear dead, burying the name Su Wan, along with her delusions of the past, beyond the cold palace walls. Five years later, the renowned physician Lin Suwen has made a name for herself throughout the land. When the Empress Dowager falls gravely ill, Lin Suwen answers the call and enters the capital, wielding peerless skill with silver needles as she steps into the imperial city that once stripped her to the bone. This time, she seeks no favor and harbors no old affection. In the name of a healer, she means to pierce the layers of deception clouding the court and clear the Su family's name of an age-old injustice. Emperor Xiao Jingyan assumes she is merely an arrogant, talented wanderer. He never expects her to bring not only a miraculous healing art that can snatch the dying from death, but also a child whose features bear an uncanny resemblance to his own. When the icy physician sets an old keepsake on his desk, and the mischievous child points at him and calls him a “foolish emperor,” the lofty ruler's eyes finally redden. He pins her against the palace wall, his voice trembling as he begs her to turn back. Faced with the emperor's desperate humility and madness, Lin Suwen brushes his hand aside, her expression indifferent. “Your Majesty, Su Wan died five years ago. The woman standing before you now is Lin Suwen, here to claim your life.” This is a contest played on the board of the realm, and a redemption spanning death and hatred. In the name of Suwen, she proceeds step by step, carving a bloody path through the court's treacherous intrigue. He, meanwhile, sheds his imperial robes and willingly bows before her, hoping only to win back the woman he once pushed into the abyss with his own hands.