In the fourth year of the emperor’s reign, the empress’s seat remained vacant. His officials submitted a memorial urging him to establish an empress’s palace, but he leisurely remarked that an empress would get in the way of his enjoying the charms of eight hundred beauties.
The Jiang family was aristocratic, but a gentleman’s legacy lasts only five generations. With no promising heirs in the main branch, even their vast estate could hardly be sustained. Fortunately, the second branch had a capable young lady. To keep the family afloat, she entered the palace without looking back.
She had thought the emperor was an easy-to-manage ruler who loved beauty above all else. Who could have guessed that when the two faced off, it would feel like two armies confronting each other, battling for the upper hand at every turn and competing at every opportunity?
They turned the palace upside down, with birds scattering and chaos everywhere, and kept fighting and scheming until neither could let the other go.
Well, they’ve fallen for each other.
The author writes very well, with a solid foundation in classical Chinese and elegant word choice, which makes people immersed in the situation.