Summary
After a life spent paying for her sister’s choices, Lu Li wakes on the day her twin brother dies. This time she claims his identity and the chance to study. Disguised as Lu Yu, she enters the imperial examinations, determined to rise beyond the courtyard walls that once confined her. But Pei Zhou, the man she married and killed in her first life, remembers their past too. As he threatens her secret and her sister’s marriage unravels, Lu Li must decide what she owes her family—and how far she will go to claim a place in a world built for men.