On the night after the college entrance exams, Lin Wei was so outraged by Yuying's tragic fate in War and Beauty that she leaped to her feet, then promptly fainted beside the tea table. When she opened her eyes again, the carved bed curtains had become the bright yellow silk canopy of the Forbidden City. She had become Hou Jia Yuying, a newly arrived palace consort: beautiful as a peach blossom, yet doomed to scheme her way through the inner palace and ultimately die in a fire.
With the entire plot fresh in her mind, Lin Wei stared at the breathtaking face in the bronze mirror and clenched her fists. She knew the cruelty hidden beneath Erchun's gentle mask, understood the secrets An Qian kept buried, and was well aware of Consort Ru's hunger for power, the Empress's malice, and the emperor's royal art of deception: seemingly affectionate, but in truth heartless.
The original Yuying had stopped at nothing to win the emperor's favor, only to become a pawn. But Lin Wei was no doddering vine for others to manipulate. Armed with the mind of a top scorer and the ability to predict every turn in the plot, she would rewrite this tragedy.
When Erchun plotted against her in secret, she turned the tables and made her rival suffer instead. When the eunuchs and palace maids slighted her, she balanced kindness with authority and won their loyalty. When the emperor tested her, she remained poised and composed, keeping him intrigued while never surrendering the initiative. She no longer clung to elusive love. She believed only power could protect her and her mother.
While everyone still thought Hou Jia Yuying was a pretty fool, she had already laid out a game-changing plan in a corner no one noticed. The palace was both a purgatory and her stage. This time, she would make sure the golden branch did not shatter like jade, and show everyone who had schemed against her who the real winner was.
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