I Married the Informant Before My Family Was Executed

The day all fifty-two members of the Shen family were hauled onto the execution grounds, Pei Zhao arrived with a marriage contract. He was the man who had personally reported the Shen family. He had traded his military achievements in the Northwest for one exemption from execution. As long as Shen Zhuo married him, she could live. She could also refuse and give that chance to her fifteen-year-old younger sister, her little cousin, or any other member of the Shen family kneeling on the execution platform. Everyone waited for her to give it up. But Shen Zhuo wrote her name on the marriage contract. As she lay dying, her younger sister shouted just one thing to her: “Shen Zhuo, don’t waste your life.” That very day, she began investigating the treasonous letter that had sent the entire Shen family to the execution grounds. But the further she dug, the more she discovered something even more horrifying: Someone in the Shen family might truly have been guilty. Her father had also concealed the truth. And the man who had personally sent the Shen family to the execution grounds, and was now her husband, seemed to have known all along. She had never been investigating only whether the Shen family had been wronged. She wanted to know who bore responsibility for the lives of 317 frontier soldiers and 51 members of the Shen family.