Shen Qingyan, the legitimate daughter of a military family, was once empress of the Great Yao. But her husband, Xiao Jingyuan, and Consort Su Lianyue framed her. The Shen family was executed to the last in a charge of “treason,” while she was thrown into the Cold Palace and forced to drink poison. Before she died, she vowed to make them pay in blood.
Reborn, she returns to the night of her coronation as empress. The Shen family is still alive, her elder brother has not yet died, and Su Lianyue has only just been made a consort. The tragedy has yet to happen. This time, she puts away her gentle nature and becomes a shrewd strategist. First, she foils Su Lianyue's plot to poison her with “calming soup” and exposes her scheme to “fake auspicious omens,” reducing her from consort to palace maid. Then she contacts loyal former officials and the Shen family's old allies, gathering evidence of Xiao Jingyuan's crimes: murdering his brother to seize the throne, imposing excessive taxes, and secretly colluding with the Xiongnu. In doing so, she dismantles the foundations of his rule.
During her revenge, she reunites with Chu Lin, the great general who died in her previous life trying to clear the Shen family's name. From rescuing her after a fall from horseback to fighting at her side on the battlefield, they become allies who would die for each other and gradually fall in love. Chu Lin becomes her most steadfast support.
When Xiao Jingyuan tries to place her under house arrest and split up the Shen army, Shen Qingyan joins forces with Chu Lin and her elder brother Shen Jinghong, commander of the Shen army. Using evidence of treasonous dealings with the enemy at the border, they expose Xiao Jingyuan's true nature. In front of the Imperial Ancestral Temple, they depose him and imprison him for life, then give Su Lianyue the same poisoned wine to settle their blood feud. Afterward, Shen Qingyan quells a rebellion within the imperial clan and ascends the throne with the support of the people, the army, and the court. She changes the reign title to “Jinghe,” makes Chu Lin Prince of Jing'an (with no harem), clears the Shen family's name, and introduces reforms, leading the Great Yao into an age of prosperity and truly fulfilling the promise of “a phoenix ruling the Nine Provinces.”
