[Black technology dominates all + Empress behind the scenes + Strong female lead, no romance]
As An Lingrong swallowed her last bitter almond, she bound herself to a technology-driven nation-building System from the twenty-second century. Reborn on the day of the selection, she tore up her embroidered handkerchief and smiled. “This time, I’ll turn this vast realm into a chessboard.”
While the consorts in the harem were tearing each other apart over half a bolt of shimmering silk, the solar-powered looms she had developed had already sent Jiangnan’s cloth prices tumbling by thirty percent. While the Empress controlled everything with abortion medicine, her hybrid rice was saving a hundred thousand famine victims in the northwest. By day, she was Attendant An, a face the Emperor couldn’t remember. By night, under the alias “Mr. An,” she used a telescope to survey the stars and win the Astronomical Bureau’s submission, while telegraph machines put her in control of urgent reports from hundreds of miles away.
“Your Highness, the charcoal from the Imperial Household Department is mixed with crushed stones.”
“Sell the new smokeless-coal formula to wealthy merchants, and use the profits to support three thousand private soldiers.”
“Consort Hua is humiliating Shen Meizhuang at Yikun Palace again.”
“Have the Ministry of Works ‘accidentally’ discover the saltpeter mine beneath her palace walls. Tomorrow, she’ll have to move.”
The Six Palaces thought her timid as a quail, never realizing that a miniature camera was hidden in a secret compartment of the Hall of Mental Cultivation, or that movable-type printing was used for the memorials in the Imperial Study. While the Emperor was engrossed in stargazing through the telescope she had “invented,” the first steam tractor was already roaring across an experimental farm in Gansu.
On the rainy night of the palace coup, An Lingrong strode into the Hall of Supreme Harmony wearing a robe embroidered with dragons. She tapped the virtual screen with one finger, and electric lights across the capital instantly illuminated the Forbidden City. “It’s time you all started addressing me as Your Majesty.”
P.S.
1. An Lingrong becomes a powerhouse.
2. Harem intrigue isn’t the focus; building her career is.
3. An Lingrong’s character changes.
4. No character bashing.
5. Her golden finger is a little overpowered.
