Reborn as Consort Hua: I Decide My Own Fate

After smashing her head against a wall and dying in a pool of blood in the Cold Palace, Nian Shilan finally saw that her lifelong devotion had been nothing but a joke.

Reborn on the day the new consorts entered the palace, her heart turned to ash. She wanted only to avoid competition and quietly await death.

But even if a tree wishes for stillness, the wind will not cease.

She shut herself away, yet the emperor visited her with unusual attentiveness, his eyes filled with unshakable wariness and calculation.

She meted out rewards and punishments fairly, yet the women of the Six Palaces pressed her at every turn, mocking her as old and faded, her favor long gone.

If she could not have peace and quiet, then so be it.

She would not compete for favor, only for survival!

She would not compete for love, only for victory!

The empress hid a blade behind her smile? Then Nian Shilan would tear away her hypocritical mask!

The consorts plotted behind her back? Then she would make them suffer the consequences!

The emperor feigned affection? Then she would make him taste the pain of a pierced heart!

Everyone thought she had lost the emperor’s favor and become a tiger without fangs.

They did not know that she watched coldly from the sidelines, having already dragged them all into a far more perilous game.

When the storm rose because of her, when her sworn enemy knelt and begged for mercy,

Nian Shilan stood atop the heights of imperial majesty, gazing down on all under heaven, and smiled coldly:

“When I chose not to compete, you still had a chance to live.”

“If I decide to compete, even this empire will change hands!”

Reading Guide

A ruthless, ambitious schemer who lives for her career vs. a suspicious, scheming emperor

The heroine is clear-headed and decisive, with brains to match, and the action never lets up

A cathartic palace-intrigue story, with satisfying takedowns and merciless revenge