[The emperor is not chaste in the early chapters. If that's a dealbreaker, don't read.]
The early chapters focus on palace intrigue, the middle leans toward doting romance, and the later chapters feature exclusive devotion.
Jun Lingxiao will dismiss his harem by the end.
She is the daughter of the Duke's legitimate daughter. She should have grown up surrounded by love, but her mother's life was taken from her when she was young, due to her father's schemes and the struggle for power. Her mother, the Empress Dowager's younger sister, was a woman of peerless talent and beauty. Yet she died under the combined persecution of her father and the Consort's mother, while her elder brother was sent to the borderlands. For years, the heroine has lain low in the shadows, missing no clue. At last, she uncovers the truth behind the long-buried bloodshed.
When her father tries to strengthen his power by pushing her into the pit that is the Marquis's household, arranging her marriage to an old, ugly, lecherous marquis whose hands are stained with the lives of innocent women, the heroine does not falter. She resolutely chooses to enter the palace, determined to turn the harem into a chessboard for her revenge.
Once inside the palace, the heroine's extraordinary beauty and intelligence catch the Empress Dowager's attention. The two take to each other immediately, and after a long conversation, grandmother and granddaughter recognize one another. Upon learning the truth behind her younger sister's death, the Empress Dowager is heartbroken. As the most powerful woman in the palace, she decides to stand behind the heroine. With the Empress Dowager's support, the heroine thereafter navigates the competing forces of the emperor, the Consort, her father, and others, making careful plans at every turn, all to make those who harmed her mother pay a terrible price. In this man-eating harem, a silent war of revenge is about to begin.
