The heroine is formidable. She helps the male lead rise to power, all the while hoping to leave the imperial capital, but he forces her to stay by his side. Pressured by someone she trusts, she indirectly causes the death of her beloved. The heroine decides to overthrow him and begins plotting everything. Once she succeeds, she wanders the world.
The heroine is always clear-headed. Her beloved is a girl, a courtesan she rescued. Later, through a cruel twist of fate, the girl is accidentally killed in front of her. At first, a powerful minister’s family pushes the heroine into a position of power to avenge themselves. She is ruthless, not some innocent, sweet heroine. In the middle of the story, she hands power over to the male lead, but he secretly falls for her and devises all sorts of schemes to keep her from leaving. Later, after seeing her beloved die before her eyes, the heroine pulls herself together and plots to seize power. In the end, she successfully overthrows the male lead, installs a new emperor, and wanders the world with her beloved’s ashes. Eventually, she lets go of the past and finds happiness again.
The heroine is not a virgin, and she is a little weaker in the middle, but she turns the tables and reshapes everything through her own abilities.
There’s a bit of coercive love, which I personally enjoy. But since the heroine can fight back, it may not be quite like the traditional version of the trope.
It's nice to look at. It's still relatively new.