After staying up all night watching Empresses in the Palace, Zhao Weiwei accidentally spills her hot milk tea. When she opens her eyes again, she's somehow become a Qing-dynasty maiden assigned to marry the Fourth Prince, Yinzhen, during the reign of the Kangxi Emperor, sent to bring him good fortune? Her original self was timid and weak, and had been banished to a side courtyard for talking back to the principal wife. But modern-day Zhao Weiwei rubs her aching knees and smiles. So she's supposed to be a convenient wife? She's got clever ways to manage a household, like serving meals individually and organizing things scientifically; a knack for running a home, from improving the storeroom to cutting costs and increasing revenue; and plenty of unconventional ideas to make the Fourth Prince sit up and take notice. “Your Highness, the accounts for your household should use double-entry bookkeeping. I guarantee you'll be able to understand them at a glance!”
The Fourth Prince, Yinzhen, had assumed she would be a timid concubine. Then, one late night, he caught her crouching in the kitchen, holding a strange copper kettle and studying the “principles of steam.” When she dealt with a rat infestation in the household, her modern snap traps and pepper water left him equal parts amused and exasperated. This maiden, who was always saying “In the modern world,” was like a stone dropped into a deep pool, disturbing his customary composure.
From her awkwardness beneath the red wedding veil on their wedding night to secretly arranging provisions for him during the northwestern war; from the Eighth Prince's faction setting a “poisoned wine trap” to protecting Nian Gengyao's family after his downfall, Zhao Weiwei uses her modern wisdom and open-hearted nature to support Yinzhen in the strictly ranked inner household and the treacherous imperial court. When he is cold and stern, she is the one who understands him, easing his exhaustion from reviewing memorials with a bowl of hot porridge. When he is ruthless, she is his weakness, the one for whom he willingly tempers his sharpness. When he is lonely, she is his light, helping him see “home” through the bloody storm of the succession struggle.
