When Lin Yuwei woke, she had become the deposed empress left to die in the Cold Palace.
The daughter of a former imperial physician, she had been implicated in her family's crimes, and her medical skills condemned as “witchcraft.”
All she wanted was to quietly find a way to survive among the ruined halls and crumbling walls: treat a maid's cough, rescue a eunuch who fell into the water, and use a golden hairpin and silk thread to perform a few surgeries that should not exist in this era.
Until, on a rainy night, a blood-soaked palace guard knelt outside her hall.
“Your Majesty, His Majesty's heart condition has suddenly flared up. The Imperial Medical Bureau... can do nothing.”
On the dragon bed, the young emperor's face was purple, his breath nearly gone.
The imperial physicians knelt and trembled, while she held a golden hairpin heated in a flame and gently cut open his bright yellow dragon robe.
“Everyone out.” Her voice was calm. “I'm opening his chest.”
Later, the whole imperial palace knew:
If you want to stay alive, don't go to the Imperial Medical Bureau. Go to the Cold Palace.
If you want to win favor, don't learn music and dance. Memorize medical texts.
And the emperor who had once deposed her with his own hands now came for a “consultation” every three days.
He gripped her wrist, turbulent emotion darkening his eyes. “These hands of the Empress can bring the dead back to life and restore flesh to bones. Can they cure this ‘heart ailment’ of mine?”
Lin Yuwei pulled her hand back and continued writing her Essentials of Surgery.
“Your Majesty, take your medicine on time. Avoid anger and excessive worry.”
“And one more thing, ”
She looked up, her gaze clear and sharp as a scalpel.
“Call me Doctor Lin.”
*Cardiothoracic Surgery Expert × Paranoid Emperor*
"She holds not only a scalpel, but the power to turn the palace upside down"
The setting of the female doctor as the chief surgeon breaks the convention, using the scalpel as the blade and medical skills as the shield, creating a unique world in the turbulent harem. The plot intertwines the medical profession and palace intrigues. The heroine's calm and decisive acting style is very charming, and her dealings with everyone in the harem are both thrilling and exciting. The characters are vividly created, the foreshadowing is cleverly laid out, the description of the medical scenes is professional and not obscure, and the plot twists are gripping. With a lively pace and dense concentration of exciting points, it is a masterpiece that is both innovative and readable, making it impossible to put down.
The writing is beautiful and delicate, and there is a lot of professional knowledge about traditional Chinese medicine and palace tactics, which is very attractive.