The Phoenix Robe

The Princess Altered the Imperial Edict and Became Empress!

[Growth-oriented heroine, not a one-on-one romance, multiple male leads, slow burn, a touch of ensemble cast, alternate history]

Jiang Lian was once the most doted-on princess in the realm, Princess Yichuan. But after interfering in state affairs several times, she aroused her father’s suspicions. He forcibly changed her betrothal, stripped her of her title, and took away her fief.

She sneered, tore up her father’s imperial edict, and with a few strokes of her brush, began ruling alongside him.

She lifted the chin of her childhood friend, a young general, and from then on commanded countless troops, sending iron cavalry thundering across the northwest frontier.

She pretended not to see the young chancellor’s treacherous heart beneath his appearance of loyalty, appointed a ruthless official to oversee the court, then swiftly dismissed the chancellor and reclaimed his authority.

At the foot of the capital, beneath ten miles of soft red lantern light, a Hu assassin played his pipa and listened as she told the story of how she had come this far. At the end, he said, “I wish to serve as your subject.”

“A treacherous minister who dares to remonstrate?”

“A loyal minister with honeyed words and a dagger in his heart.”

From Princess Yichuan to Empress Wenkang; from a girl who was always smiling to a woman alone at the top, watching flowers fall; from the Princess’s Residence deep among the willows of the capital to a court filled with nobles in crimson and purple. She climbed higher, step by step, gaining and losing along the way. When she looked back, her lovely dream was over, and her youthful face had changed.