Old Moon, New Snow

She and the late emperor shared a deep love, devoted to each other for a lifetime. Yet when he died, she felt relieved.

The Xiang clan of Great Chu had been kings in all but name for a hundred years. Their ancestral rule declared: Every Zhao emperor must marry a Xiang woman as his empress.

Xiang Zhuoyue was the legitimate daughter of her generation, born favored by heaven and cherished by her father and brothers. After she married the crown prince, Zhao Xi, the Eastern Palace had no concubines. When she became empress, the six inner palaces stood empty.

Then Zhao Xi was assassinated, and she was left gravely wounded and confined to her sickbed. As she thought back over the past, everything seemed hazy.

It seemed she'd forgotten so much.

She'd forgotten certain people and things, forgotten that beneath the Xiang family's century of glory lay someone she should never have forgotten.

The late emperor's final wishes, the records of the imperial harem whose truth was hard to discern, the assassin of unknown origins, and the Xiang clan she had never truly understood all served as reminders:

Perhaps there had never been any such thing as fate.

Perhaps someone had simply built a dream for her.

Now, she had to find the way out of that dream herself.

[Content Warnings]

1. The heroine is a young dowager empress and is not sexually pure. There are different male leads at different stages, and all the men are sexually pure! The heroine is calculating and will use any man she can! No rivalry between women! The young emperor is her biological son!

2. This is not a matriarchal world, but the heroine is controlled early on. She will gradually come to her senses and rise step by step, gaining real power.

3. There are many hidden plots and layers of foreshadowing. The story is split evenly between court intrigue and romance. No golden finger. This is not a face-slapping power fantasy, but the heroine is formidable in her own right.

4. The court and daily-life details in this story draw on the Ming dynasty. Please don't nitpick historical accuracy.

[Political Intrigue · Strong Female Lead · Women's Awakening | Not 1v1]