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Appreciative, comforting, heartbroken, pitying, or... possessive--

"You don't need to worry, political marriages aren't that scary." She took the tea from his hand and gulped it down. "As a daughter, being able to help my father accomplish his grand enterprise is pretty impressive, isn't it? I can't compete with you in beauty and temperament, but only a real woman can do this kind of thing. You couldn't do it, right?"

With that, she even fluttered her eyebrows at him as if offering a rare treasure.

The late emperor had passed away suddenly without any male heirs in the line of succession. At that split second when a prosperous era teetered on the brink of chaos, Prime Minister Li immediately welcomed Your Majesty into the Capital to prepare for ascension. However, General Wu Yanju, who guarded the border, held heavy military forces and his stance remained unclear. After all, the newly ascended Your Majesty shared neither kinship nor favors with that General Wu. As long as he showed the slightest disobedience and relied on his troops to assert independence, a single spark could cause the border's peril to rage fiercely.

Yet, a brilliant scheme defused this hair-trigger peril.

This brilliant scheme was her--Li Danxin.

Under the guise of marrying off his daughter, she had the general's son transferred from the border back to Yuanzhou in Jiangnan, stripping away half of his troops. Once the emperor sat firmly on the dragon throne, under the pretext of filial care, Wu Yanju was also transferred from the frontier back to Yuanzhou to serve as a general in Jiangnan without any real power.

This chess piece of hers was cleverly planted into the enemy camp's throat. She was all alone, a single white chess piece played by her own biological father into the midst of