Flappers & Fiction

The fate of the Middle Kingdom rests within a stolen casket of purple jade. When the ambitious Têdo of Paou Ting Fu discovers the royal seal, he concocts a lie that breaks the Prince’s heart, trading the empire’s loyalty for a marriage to his haughty daughter. While the Prince stands before the altar in grim resignation, believing himself forsaken, a “slave” in the palace kitchens hears the mournful notes of a flute. Sho Kai must now rush into the midst of the royal guard to prove her truth, for the torches are already lit for the final march against the usurper Wu Chih Tien.

The Prince’s army sweeps through the gates of Su Chow, bringing the cruel merchant Wu Deah to his knees, yet the victory feels hollow without the woman he loves. Believing Li Tan dead because of a suitor’s wicked lie, Sho Kai sacrifices herself in a marriage she cannot endure, seeking final escape in the moonlit currents of the Yang Tze Kiang. But fate intervenes with a rescue that carries new peril, for the noblewoman who saves her has just discovered the lost royal seal hidden beneath the bride’s wet robes.

Li Tan remains a captive in Wu Deah’s household until a visit from the terrifying Empress Wu Chih Tien offers a strange glint of hope. While the flute and yon kin weave a melody of forbidden love between the secret prince and Sho Kai, destiny arrives in the form of two wandering merchants. Li Tan must abandon his servitude to reclaim a stolen throne, entrusting Sho Kai with a purple jade casket holding the empire’s fate. Now cast out along the Yang Tze Kiang, she guards a secret that could topple a dynasty.

Weary and disguised in swineherd’s rags, Prince Li Tan marvels at the silver canals of Su Chow, believing his luck has finally turned. But in this land, beauty often masks cruelty. Desperate to escape his pursuers, he enters the gilded gates of the merchant Wu Deah and makes a bargain that costs him his freedom. Yet, when his royal pride refuses to bend before a slave’s whip, he is cast into a dark dungeon. There, he discovers that the truest light shines not from malachite columns, but from the tender mercy of Sho Kai.

Wu Chih Tien does not wait behind her armies. She rides the war god of Annam straight into the avalanche of logs and stones, and the death bolts seem to swerve around her. A million soldiers chant her name. Against this, General Mah holds a mountain, Ta Teen wields a sword that severs armor like spider’s thread, and somewhere in the darkness a lost prince trades his imperial robes for a swineherd’s rags and a dish of pounded acorns.

The rescue of the young Prince from the dust-choked plains was only the beginning. Safe within General Wong’s mountain stronghold, the true heir to the Dragon Throne finally stands revealed, accepting the jade seal and the loyalty of the rebel army. But in the capital, the usurper Empress Wu Chih Tien has traded her silken robes for golden armor. Leading a million men toward the San Soo hills, she vows to crush the uprising herself, leaving the small band of patriots to face a terrifying, glittering river of steel.

The Middle Flowery Kingdom groans under Wu Chih Tien’s jeweled heel, her treasury drained for debauchery while the poor face her tiger pits. Hope lies only with a hidden youth in Paou Ting Fu, unaware that the vermilion mark on his chest brands him the true Emperor. But just as the secret is revealed by a letter written in blood, the usurper’s net closes tight. Instead of rallying General Mah’s rebels, the prince now finds himself bound in a bullock cart, rolling toward the capital’s execution grounds where the serpents wait.

The lineage of the Tungs faces extinction, threatened not by war, but by the beautiful, ruthless Wu Chih Tien. She has already murdered her own child to frame the innocent Empress and seize the throne. But a secret remains hidden in the Lun Goon dungeon: a newborn prince. Now, the survival of the true dynasty rests in the arms of a fleeing eunuch, who must outrun the usurper’s spies with nothing but a jade seal and a mother’s dying wish to guide him.