(Transmigrate into a book + devoted romance + idealism + complete + short-to-medium length)
After transmigrating into the “final heroine” of a palace-intrigue novel, Lu Yanqiu assumes the battlefield of her life will be the walled-in world of the inner residence.
Through her efforts, Prince Yan, Xiao Lin, takes her hand and promises her a future where they will be “the only ones in each other’s lives,” and where she will be his one and only love!
She has won the love of the most powerful and esteemed man in the prince’s household, and even in the entire world!
But has she really won?
The word “object” keeps haunting her thoughts.
Enough! She refuses to be an object!
She detests this fictional world that confines women to the inner court and pits them against one another!
Why should she have to compete with other women for affection under rules someone else made?
There should be other possibilities for their lives.
She wants power, too!
She helps her elder brother pass the imperial exams, befriends an astonishingly unconventional female top scorer, and, after becoming empress, uses her authority to encourage farming and sericulture, establish schools for girls, and promote the right of women to establish their own households, giving women throughout the land the means to support themselves.
Life is about more than hairpins and makeup. Women also deserve the skills to make a living and the freedom to choose their own paths.
Many years later, her daughter points to the dragon throne and asks, “Mother, can I sit there?”
Holding her daughter’s hand, she answers with gentle conviction:
“Of course. That is exactly what your mother fought for, for you and for countless others like you: the right to say, ‘I can.’”
(PS: Feel free to skim the earlier chapters. They mostly set up foreshadowing and establish the heroine’s motivations for her later actions.)
