Reborn as a Substitute Bride: The Empress Murdered the Emperor and Seized the Throne

In her previous life, she was Su Wan, the Crown Prince’s secondary consort. On her wedding night, she was given poisoned wine, and her entire family was falsely accused and wiped out. Reborn, she returned as a lowly palace maid, infiltrating the inner palace and becoming the sharpest blade in the hands of the Ninth Prince, Li Ye, a ruthless man who was blind and crippled. She helped him murder his brothers, imprison his father, and bathe the court in blood as he climbed step by step to the supreme throne.

But the new emperor’s throne was not yet secure. Poisonous parasites plagued him, and currents of intrigue surged through the court. Su Wan was forced to take charge of the Phoenix Seal, ruling with an iron fist under the title of Director of the Palace Administration Bureau. The secret of twins beneath a dry well in the Cold Palace, the strange totems of an evil sect in the Western Frontier, the despairing letters of former court consorts, the shocking mystery of swapped heirs deep within the imperial mausoleum... Layer upon layer of mystery and murderous intent dragged her into an even deeper whirlpool.

From avenger to ruler, from pawn to player, she navigated this gilded cage, testing, using, comforting, and balancing power with the sinister emperor. They were accomplices, and each other’s only antidote and poison. When the dust finally settled, she reached the pinnacle and perched like a phoenix in the parasol tree, only to realize she had never truly escaped the palace, forged from blood and secrets.