The Empress Lies Flat, and the Entire Palace Panics

Su Wantang, daughter of a wealthy Suzhou merchant, is forced to take her gravely ill younger sister’s place and marry Emperor Zhou Huaijin of Great Zhou. She intends to take it easy and coast through life, but her “hands-off” approach to palace intrigue catches the emperor’s attention. When a consort falsely accuses her, she simply admits, “I did it,” only for the emperor to discover the consort framed her. When the Empress Dowager pressures her, she obediently accepts punishment, and the Empress Dowager decides she is sensible. When her husband’s family schemes against her, she shrugs and says, “Do whatever you like,” and they end up exposing themselves. In the end, she wins by doing nothing and becomes empress, helping the emperor reform the government and proving that you can lie flat and still come out on top.