At the fall of the Great Zhao dynasty, rebels stormed the palace. Princess Zhaoluan watched her parents die at the hands of her beloved’s father. She swore a blood oath never to see Li Chengqian again, then leaped from the city wall to her death. He caught only her sachet, and buried his love with it. Ten years later, Li Chengqian is emperor. Zhaoluan, rescued but amnesiac, lives as a scullery maid named Aluan. One night, a drunken encounter with the emperor marks her as the only woman who can ease his strange affliction. She flees at dawn. He searches the entire harem for the woman with a rose-shaped birthmark. Her protector, Palace Mistress Zhao, hides the mark and her identity. The emperor, haunted by her resemblance to Zhaoluan, forces her to stay as his concubine—loving her as a shadow, tormenting her as a ghost. He has her tongue poisoned for playing an old song, and molds her into the dead princess. When Palace Mistress Zhao is executed for helping her escape, Zhaoluan’s memories return in a flood of horror: she is the princess, and he is the enemy. Now she plays a new role—the vengeful survivor. She poisons her tormentors, outlasts palace conspiracies, and watches her long-lost sister die in her arms. In the final storm, Li Chengqian takes a fatal poison to save her. On his deathbed, he gives her the throne. She becomes the first empress of a restored Great Zhao. She finds a healer to save him. And she chooses, at last, to lay down the hatred and walk beside him—not as enemies, but as rulers of a kingdom reborn from ashes.
