Shen Yao, unwilling to let the Shen family remain at the mercy of the powerful and nobility, scattered her family's wealth to lay out a grand strategy, funding impoverished scholars in batches for political investment to gamble on the Shen family's future. In a rainy-night ancient temple, she selected the ambitious Pei Yuan, feigning kindness to pave his way. Yet Pei Yuan was equally calculating, stepping up his path to rising power along the way. The two played games against each other and utilized one another, stepping into danger step by step within the vortex of court factional struggles and imperial checks and balances. Betrayal and dead ends followed one after another, as commerce and power violently intertwined. They were not for romance, but simply to survive and hold onto their destiny; in this game of future chess wagered with their lives, until the very end it was hard to tell who was a chess piece and who was the player.