Princess They Thought Was Dead

Yuwen Xinyue was the emperor's favourite daughter, which made her brother, the eldest prince, hate her. She was separated from the court during a hunt as a child and was gone fifteen years. In that time she took the name Bai Xinyue and became head of the Tianji Lodge, an intelligence organisation, living quietly in a small town. She married a scholar there, and when he came first in the imperial examinations and had a career ahead of him, he cast her off. Her father recognises her by the paired phoenix hairpins, and her identity is restored. She uses what her organisation knows to expose the eldest prince's plan to seize the throne, and clears out his faction at court. At a ceremony she meets Jin Yuan, a prince held at the capital as a hostage from a rival kingdom, and an engagement is arranged between them. She comes to care for him before she learns that he is the Sacred King of Xidi, that the marriage alliance is a cover, and that he intends to bring her father's kingdom down.