(Some plot points and details differ from the original to accommodate the story’s later developments. If you’re not okay with that, feel free to read something else.)
When she woke up, the ruler of the Forbidden City, Nian Shilan, discovered that she was trapped in the body of a wretched woman named Fan Shengmei! Instead of palace servants kneeling before her, she faced debt-collection texts and relatives who drained her dry. Once surrounded by imperial splendor, she now had to worry about groceries and next month’s rent. Consort Hua laughed in fury. “Let’s see whether the rules of the Forbidden City are tougher, or Shanghai’s housing prices!”
Meanwhile, Fan Shengmei, who had been struggling at the bottom of society, awoke amid the carved beams and painted rafters of Yikun Palace, in the body of Consort Hua, the emperor’s most powerful concubine. Faced with a scheming empress and jealous consorts, she was terrified. Palace intrigue? All she knew was workplace manipulation and performance reviews! But to survive, she had to make the most of her people skills, only to unexpectedly find the emperor thinking… that this woman had suddenly become rather interesting.
When an overbearing imperial consort takes on a bizarre family, using her palace-intrigue skills to take down vicious servants and outsmart her in-laws; when a workplace “gold digger” winds up in the imperial harem, using a modern outlook to coast through life and somehow thrive, what will happen? Is this soul swap across time a comeback against all odds, or a complete descent into chaos? Watch these two women take on both worlds and forge astonishing new lives!
