In the twenty-seventh year of Yong'an, Shen Qingci, the eldest daughter of the Duke of Zhenguo, entered the Forbidden City as one of the top three in the draft. She was born as a proud daughter of heaven. She was proficient in all kinds of music, chess, calligraphy and painting. She also inherited her mother's character as a general, and she had a resourcefulness and courage that was not inferior to that of a man. Others only thought of her as a meek and dignified noble daughter of a family, but they didn't know that the high walls of the palace had become a battlefield that she had to conquer as early as the age of her hairpin.
When she first entered the palace, she abided by her duties and refused to fight or rob her. However, she was repeatedly framed: the talented people who lived together secretly poisoned her, and the powerful concubine made excuses to make things difficult. Even the seemingly kind-hearted Queen Mother regarded the government behind her as a thorn in her side and wanted to use her as a pawn to balance the government. Shen Qingci worked hard at every step, astonishing the emperor's heart with his "Shocking Dance", and won his majesty's favor with his disaster relief strategy. In several crises, he used thunderous means to fight back, not only protecting those around him, but also making those with hidden evil intentions pay a heavy price.
The young emperor Xiao Jingyuan has been on the throne for three years. He is hampered by powerful ministers inside and the vassal kings are looking at him outside. The harem is a dark place where various forces compete. When he first met Shen Qingci, he thought she was just another woman from an aristocratic family who wanted to be popular, but through repeated confrontations and trials, he was moved by her intelligence, tenacity and occasional vulnerability. He broke the rules of the harem for her and built the Yaoguang Palace to favor only one person; he cleared the obstacles for her in the court and weakened the power of her relatives and powerful ministers; and when she was involved in rumors of "collaborating with the enemy", he declared to the world with the power of an emperor: "My queen, I am the only one in this life, Shen Qingci."
But the road to the palace is never smooth. After he was deposed, his relatives came back, and the princess from a neighboring country came to war with them.
