The Peony Becomes Empress, Calmly Replacing Three Emperors

Black-lotus heroine + angst in the early chapters + self-interest above all + clear-cut love and hate

I was born to be empress.

If you won’t obey, I’ll just find someone else…

At first, she too had the hopes and dreams of a young girl.

But one by one, the people around her were killed.

Exiled, abandoned, miscarrying, reduced to nothing, she struggled through the mud…

At last, she rose to the top, took control of everything, and blossomed into the most alluring and dazzling peony.