When modern office worker Shen Qingxian woke up, she had become the supposedly “dead” Crown Prince Yuwen Duo of the Great Zhou dynasty. With the regent coveting the throne and the imperial clan harboring ulterior motives, she had no choice but to inherit the throne as a man and become a young emperor. With her modern mindset and the aid of a mysterious System, she cracked down on corruption with an iron fist, introduced reforms, repelled foreign invaders, and gradually consolidated imperial power, earning a reputation as a wise ruler.
Yet the secret of her true sex hung over her like a sword. Pressure from the court to name an heir and the furious backlash of the old aristocratic factions pushed her to the brink. To preserve the realm, she resolutely staged a shocking abdication, slipping away unnoticed to the misty Jiangnan region.
Under the alias “Mr. Shen,” she continued to guide the empire from behind the scenes, but drew the new emperor's attention and the pursuit of old enemies. When the emperor once again made a southern inspection tour and the truth teetered on the verge of being exposed, what would she choose? Would she disappear for good and guard her secret for the rest of her life? Or answer the System's summons, return to the modern world, and bring this cross-temporal entanglement to an end?
This is the ultimate contest of political intrigue and emotion, an epic tale of an empress torn between her country and her own place in the world.
