Overseer9000
Sub-title: The Roman Secret of the Kaifeng Court
One Empire founded in blood. One secret buried in stone. One woman who will defy them both.
The year is 961 AD. The scent of incense still hangs heavy in the air of Kaifeng, but the celebrations for the new Northern Song Dynasty have turned to mourning. Emperor Zhao Kuangyin is dead-assassinated by an unknown shadow-leaving the aging Emperor Wu Weilong and Empress Bei Yuao to steer a fractured nation through the storm.
Amidst the chaos, the Heimu Clan watches from the markets. To the world, they are mere timber merchants; in reality, they are the Blackwood line, descendants of Roman Generals who fled the collapse of the West to find refuge in the East.
Ruo Han (formerly Alexandra Blackwood) refuses to let her family's legacy rot in a warehouse. Bound by a 30-year-old secret and a mind built for war, she cuts her hair and dons the robes of a scholar. As "He Haotian," she enters the cutthroat world of the Imperial Examinations to become the first female official in Chinese history.
But the palace is a labyrinth of mirrors. When she is drawn into the inner circle of the 25-year-old Crown Prince Wu Jingyai, the game changes. He is looking for a traitor; she is living a lie. In a court where one wrong word means execution, Ruo Han must decide: will she restore the Roman glory of the Blackwood name, or will her heart betray the disguise that keeps her alive