Transmigrating as a Concubine's Daughter to Plot for the Throne

Lin Wei, a graduate student in modern history, opens her eyes to find that she has transmigrated into the lowest-ranking concubine in the Great Yin Dynasty. Trapped behind the vermilion walls of the imperial palace, she has become an “ant” for anyone to bully.

New to the palace, she faces the Noble Consort withholding her allowances and the Consort Shu setting secret traps. Relying on her modern knowledge and understanding of palace intrigue, she cautiously establishes herself, from boiling water to prevent epidemics to adapting poetry to move the emperor. She befriends Shen Qingwu, a cool and reserved female physician, trading folk remedies for connections and learning the factions within the harem. Against the arrogant Su Noble Consort and the hypocritical Consort Liu, she turns their own schemes against them, whether by letting tribute goods go missing to provoke the empress's displeasure or exposing a curse ritual to bring down her rival. She rises from Talented Lady to Concubine and then Consort.

She once harbored a faint hope in the gentle Emperor Xiao Jingyuan, but after watching him juggle his consorts and use romance as a bargaining chip in his power plays, she finally abandons that foolish longing. From then on, she focuses on the game of power. She improves the loom and earns the empress dowager's favor, exposes the Su family's corruption and brings down the Noble Consort, then uses her connections to foil a poisoning plot. After the empress dies, she claims the throne as empress, her advantages undeniable: no powerful family behind her to pose a threat, and the ability to keep the harem in order.

With the phoenix seal in her hand, Lin Wei stands atop the palace walls, watching the emperor laugh and talk with his new consort. Her gaze is calm and still. What she has won was never the emperor's love, but the power to control her own fate and a peaceful life within the palace walls.