Chapter 1: Meeting the Emperor, King of Qi
"Miss Yan, His Majesty summons you inside."
Yan Ning had been standing outside the imperial study for a full two hours when a eunuch finally emerged.
He wore a warm smile and spoke politely, though his face betrayed no emotion.
Yan Ning replied, "Thank you, Eunuch."
The eunuch said nothing more, leading her silently into the inner hall.
A faint whiff of dragon's ambergris incense wafted through the air—not overpowering, but sharp and commanding.
Passing through two vermilion doors, Yan Ning caught sight of a figure seated before the dragon desk.
She didn't dare look too long, lowering her head just as the eunuch announced, "Your Majesty, Miss Yan has arrived."
Yan Ning immediately knelt, pressing her forehead to the ground in reverence. "Yan Ning, daughter of a disgraced official, pays her respects to Your Majesty. Long live Your Majesty, ten thousand years and more."
Silence hung above her.
After a moment, she felt a gaze heavy with authority settle upon her.
She held her breath.
"Yan Ning," the king called.
She responded at once, "Yan Ning, daughter of a disgraced official, greets Your Majesty."
"Do you know why I've summoned you?"
"…I do."
"Good."
The emperor moved, and Yan Ning heard his footsteps—slow, deliberate, drawing closer.
From afar to near, he stopped before her.
Kneeling, she couldn't see his face, only a pair of dark dragon boots in front of her.
"The Eighteen Remonstrances—did you write them yourself?"
"Yes, Your Majesty."
"Raise your head."
Yan Ning hesitated briefly, then obeyed.
The man before her was tall, clad in a black dragon robe, his hair pinned with a jade crown. His brows were sharp as swords, his face cold as a blade, his presence like a dragon surging from the sea—vast and overwhelming. His lips were thinly pressed, his eyes cast downward, hands clasped behind his back as he regarded her with a lofty, scrutinizing stare.
So this was Qi Hengyuan, Emperor of Qi?
Three years on the throne, his reputation thundered far and wide.
He'd exiled ten martial marquises in succession, shaking the court to its core.
Some cursed him as a fool, others as a tyrant, while a few praised him as a wise ruler.
The court buzzed with mixed opinions of him.
As Yan Ning sized up Qi Hengyuan, he was doing the same to her.
His first impression: frail, pale, delicate—like a gust could topple her, no different from any ordinary woman.
Yet the Eighteen Remonstrances she'd penned proved she was anything but ordinary.
Qi Hengyuan studied her a moment longer before saying, "Stand. I have questions for you."
He turned and resumed his seat on the dragon throne.
Yan Ning braced her arms against the floor, rising slowly.
Her legs trembled—this body, inherited from its original owner, was too weak to endure much.
Qi Hengyuan spoke again, "You wrote the Eighteen Remonstrances. So why did your father still lose the war? Did you not share your insights with him? Or did he hear them and refuse to heed, leading to his defeat?"
In truth, the fall of Lanzhou Pass had happened three years ago.
Back then, she'd been Jiang Chengchi's consort—not yet an empress, not even a prince's wife. It was that unprecedented battle that propelled Jiang Chengchi to the position of crown prince, and later to the throne.
In that war, Qi lost. Qi Hengyuan's brother, the former Qi Emperor, died on the battlefield.
To retrieve the late emperor's body and negotiate peace, Qi ceded a thousand miles of land.
And the mastermind behind that devastating campaign—crippling Qi's eighteen beacon towers and nine fortified cities—was her.
At that time, she was a citizen of Jiang, Jiang Chengchi's consort. She hadn't yet died or become Yan Ning. Naturally, she'd had no reason to share strategies for victory with Yan Bin, her supposed father.
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