During the reign of Emperor Yizong in the Tang Dynasty, the well-known female detective Huang Zixia turned from a talented woman who solved crimes to a mu*derer who killed her whole family overnight, and became a wanted criminal hunted by the government with an arrest warrant in every county. Li Shubai was born a prince, but he was weighed down by the looming curses of “widowhood, loneliness and sickness” that followed him like an inescapable plague. When the emperor bestowed the marriage, the prospective princess consort behaved suspiciously, and the curse of “widowhood” was threatening to be realized.... more>>

Huang Zixia had fled to the capital alone seeking redressal of the tragic grievances that suddenly befell her, and met Li Shubai, the Prince of Kui by chance. Li Shubai, who saw through Huang Zixia’s disguise, promised to help her re-investigate the brutal mu*der of her family members to exonerate her of the charges. In exchange, he asked her to go undercover as an imperial eunuch and stay at the Prince Kui manor to investigate the unfathomable mystery that had been perturbing him for a long time. <<less

His name was Duan Ling. He used to be nothing more than an illegitimate child with humble beginnings. As a child he had his fill of neglect and torment until a mysterious man named Lang Junxia took him away from the Duans. Lang Junxia fed him, put him in school, and made him a new home. Lang Junxia told him that when the peach trees blossom his dad would come get him.... more>>

Then his dad really did come. He was far more impressive than Duan Ling imagined, far more dashing, far more omnipotent. It turned out that Duan Ling wasn’t a bastard whose paternal lineage was in question after all. In his veins flowed the most noble Han imperial blood, and the empire was supposed to belong to him.

But in troubled times, with the beacons of war lit in all four corners of the world, his dad said everyone had a destiny that befit them, and their destiny was the way of benevolent rule, that was why they could never remain content with their little corner of the world. They were destined … to carry the enmity of an invaded empire, to bear the pain of losing their homeland; to live as the self required. <<less