She opened her eyes in an icy river and found herself reborn as a useless daughter in a dirt-poor farming family in southern Xinjiang.
The thatched hut lets in the wind. Her sick father coughs blood, her cruel grandmother rations their food, and a bowl of wild-vegetable gruel is the whole family’s only hope of survival. When her eldest uncle’s wife tries to shove her into the abyss once more, her modern soul unleashes its first roar of defiance: this time, she will tear apart this cruel, consuming world!
She uses plant ash as medicine and willow branches as blades. She improves the spinning wheel and weaves the first fine cloth, then invents a clever tofu pudding that sets the market abuzz. From being cast out with nothing to making a name for herself across the region, from Shen’s Eatery to the Jiangnan Weavers’ Guild, every step of her rise is steeped in careful calculation. She turns the tables on unscrupulous bandit merchants, cracks a grain-store corruption scandal, and uses commerce as her game board to open the gates of the imperial capital.
But she does not know that beyond the towering waves of the business world lies an even more perilous abyss of power.
The fallen prince Xiao Yan offers her an alliance: “Help me claim the realm, and I’ll grant you a lifetime of honor and glory.”
She bows with a faint smile. “Your Highness’s realm is something I’ll earn my way into myself.”
When the throne is stained with blood and a new emperor ascends, conservative ministers denounce her as “a hen crowing at dawn,” and impeachment memorials pour into the palace like snowflakes. She simply opens her treatise on tax reform, firmly implements high-yield crops, and establishes the first state-run school for girls in history. On the day the edict bearing the dragon seal is issued, the assembled ministers bow their heads in the Golden Throne Hall.
“By the Mandate of Heaven, Shen Qinghe, Princess of Zhaoming, is appointed to serve in the Ministry of Revenue and oversee the realm’s new policies.”
From a discarded daughter of a humble family to a peerless stateswoman, she walks a road soaked in blood and tears, and at last lets millions of women see the light.
A heroine’s epic coming-of-age × the pinnacle of strategy and political intrigue × farming, business, and prosperity × women awakening to their nation’s fate
