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The afternoon sun pierced through the heavy silk drapes of the Grand Pearl Estate in Guangzhou, casting long, golden shadows across the polished mahogany floor. Sitting behind a desk carved from dark rosewood was Zheng jiu Mei.
To the rest of Southern China, Miss Jiu was the "Opium Queen"-the undisputed, cold-hearted sovereign of the region's most lucrative trade. Over half the ministers and officials in the province carried her payroll in their pockets. She was feared, distant, and ruthless to anyone who dared cross her line. They whispered that her heart was made of ice, inherited directly from her late father, the infamous opium lord who had ruled before her.
In reality, Jiu Mei carried a secret that weighed heavier than all the gold in her vaults: she wasn't her father's daughter at all. She was an orphan brought into the household as an infant after a tragedy her "father" had caused, raised merely to inherit and shield his empire. It was a secret buried so deep that no living soul knew the truth.
No one except, perhaps, her Aunt Meihua. Meihua, a bitter woman who believed the empire should have been hers, harbored a deep, relentless suspicion. She had no proof, but her gut whispered that Miss Jiu was an impostor. Meihua spent every waking hour watching, waiting, and scheming for the slightest misstep to tear her down.
Yet, despite her terrifying public persona, Miss Jiu was far from evil. Beneath the sharp silk dresses and cold gazes, she used her vast wealth in secret-funding orphanages, buying food for starving villages, and protecting the vulnerable from the very system she controlled. But only one person in the entire world truly knew her heart.
His name was Liu sing.