Snowfall on the Vermilion Steps

The seventh prince of Great Jing, Xiao Chengyu, clawed his way out of a Northern Di pen. Sent away as a hostage at seven, branded with the mark of a prisoner at fourteen, he returned home at seventeen after personally settling his debts of gratitude and vengeance. With a madman's spirit and thirteen schemes for seizing power, he crossed a bloody battlefield of succession, rising step by step from a hostage everyone could bully to the highest throne.

On a snowy night, the girl Su Wan had once draped a red cloak over his shoulders. The sole disciple of a reclusive miracle-working physician, she was the last warmth in his dark life. Carrying her medicine chest, she traveled all the way to the capital. Though she knew her blood-withering illness was incurable, she still smiled and stayed by his side as he climbed to the pinnacle of power, hiding her condition for a year and four months for fear of becoming a burden.

When the bells of the empress's enthronement ceremony rang across the imperial city, he finally ruled a vast realm, but had forever lost the only warmth he would ever know. It turned out the most precious thing in this world was never glory that remained out of reach, but the person you once held in the palm of your hand, then sent away with your own hands.