Summary
After surviving famine, trafficking, and the father who cast her aside, eleven-year-old Nie Ruohan leads the Marquis of Zhenbei back to the wasteland where her mother died, determined to recover the bones of the family she lost.
Armed with a hidden blade, hard-won knowledge of poison, and a starving girl she chooses as her sister, Ruohan turns every trap along the road against its maker and forces the adults who betrayed her mother to face the same ruthless world they created.