A Voice That Stirs the Tides

She can hear the thoughts of everyone under heaven, yet not the echo of her own.

In the eighteenth year of Jian'an, Cao Cao sent his three daughters to the Han imperial palace. Fifteen-year-old Cao Jie possessed an extraordinary gift: the thoughts and feelings of anyone near her poured into her ears like a surging tide. She could hear the emperor's fear, the ministers' schemes, her sisters' resentment, and even the tender softness buried deep in her father Cao Cao's heart, too gentle for anyone to speak of.

But no one could hear her heart.

On the eve of entering the palace, Cao Jie made a shocking secret pact with her father: when the Han dynasty's mandate finally ran out, she would shatter the Imperial Seal of the Realm with her own hands and bear the blame for generations to come. In return, every civil and military official who had risked life and limb for the Cao clan, from Guo Jia's former followers and Dian Wei's descendants to Xun Yu's disciples and Jia Xu's heirs, would stand behind her, untouched by the stigma of the dynastic transition.

That was her condition, and her gamble.

From then on, the palace in Xudu had an empress who could see through people's hearts. She learned in advance of Fu Shou's plot to eliminate the Cao clan; she watched coolly as the secret edict hidden in a belt stirred up trouble; and as Dong Cheng, Zhong Ji, and Geng Ji rose up in turn and met their ends, she steadily secured her footing amid blood and fire. But her true demons were not in the palace: Sima Yi's patience, Cao Pi's ambition, Shu Han's fixation, Eastern Wu's cunning. For thirty years, all the world's turmoil flowed into her heart, while the only card in her hand was a secret she could hear but never speak of.