From the Start, I Was a Farmer's Wife: Reborn as the New Dynasty's Empress

In her previous life, she was the first wife of the founding emperor of the Great Jing dynasty. Yet, because she had been born a common village woman, she willingly gave up her place and accepted a life beneath others.

She never expected the imperial palace to be a bottomless abyss, where lacking the emperor’s favor was a crime and having no power meant certain ruin. She was poisoned and died in agony, her body never found.

As she lay dying, she watched the emperor turn away indifferently and finally understood:

In this man-eating palace, humility leads to death, and yielding leaves no way out!

Reborn on the very day she had given up her position, she clutched the phoenix seal, her eyes glinting with cold resolve.

In this life, she would no longer seek the emperor’s love. She would seek absolute power!

In the court, as the founding emperor’s first wife, she developed coal mining and salt production, built the economy, and turned the court into a chessboard;

In the harem, she kept the consorts in line and commanded the Six Palaces, leaving no one beneath the phoenix throne who dared to cross her;

Only when her memories returned did she realize that she was a visitor from another world. The pride and free spirit of a modern woman deep in her bones made her unable to accept a fate in which she had to share a husband with others.

But how could she possibly escape this gilded-cage life as empress?

He remained a calm, self-controlled emperor. He gave her the position of empress because she was useful, and trusted her strategies for the sake of his empire.

When he had her, he did not know how to cherish her. Only after losing her did he awaken as if from a dream:

The person who had left the deepest mark on his heart, the one he could never forget, had always been her.