While fleeing along a desolate road, Gu Lingyi, the daughter of a butcher, saves Gu Lingjia, the legitimate daughter of a marquis's household, with her pig-slaughtering knife. One promise from twelve-year-old Gu Lingjia—"Come with me, and I'll protect you"—binds their fates together forever. Gu Lingyi enters the marquis's household with her mother and establishes her place with nothing but a knife. After entering the palace, she saves the emperor with a hairpin and is bestowed the title of Noble Consort De. Yet rather than compete for his favor, she helps Gu Lingjia ascend to the empress's throne, eventually becoming an Imperial Dowager Consort herself. On the night of the enthronement ceremony, Gu Lingjia dismisses everyone and takes a secret letter from her sleeve. Written in that letter is another choice Gu Lingyi never voiced all those years ago.