On a snowy night in the Cold Palace, in the twenty-seventh year of Yong'an, Shen Qingwu drank poisoned wine and watched with her own eyes as 317 members of the Shen family were slaughtered. Her young son was thrown to his death, while her half-sister Shen Qingyao stood on her corpse and chatted merrily with Crown Prince Xiao Wenchen.
With blood and tears, she swore that if she ever had another life, her enemies would pay for their crimes in blood!
When she opened her eyes again, she had returned to the day she fell into the water at sixteen. None of the tragedies had happened yet.
In this life, she put away her gentle innocence and became a rose with thorns. Armed with the memories of her rebirth and unparalleled medical skills, she planned her every move:
She exposed her half-sister's false kindness, punished wicked servants, took charge of the Shen household's finances, and threw the inner residence into chaos;
She opened the Qingwu Apothecary, secretly built an intelligence network, made allies in the martial world, and gathered the means to stand against the Eastern Palace;
She foresaw natural disasters and stockpiled grain in advance, earning the title of county lady and raising the Shen family's prestige;
She met Prince Jing, Xiao Wenheng, by chance. Their paired-fish jade pendants matched, and they went from allies to lovers, joining forces to overcome one crisis after another.
The capital was in turmoil, and the palace was a maze of intrigue. The crown prince tried to force her into marriage? She set him three difficult tasks that would benefit the people and leave him with no way out. The imperial harem made things difficult for her? She turned their tactics against them and exposed the schemes of the Noble Consort and the Empress Dowager. The court was locked in a power struggle? She laid a trap with the salt-tax case, dealt the crown prince's faction a heavy blow, and helped Prince Jing take control of the military. The Shen family was framed? She broke into the Eastern Palace by night, obtained irrefutable evidence, and had the crown prince confined for life.
From establishing her authority in the household to bringing down the court, from lonely vengeance to building a prosperous age together, Shen Qingwu used ruthlessness and cunning to make every enemy taste the suffering she had endured in her past life. Alongside Xiao Wenheng, she protected her family and ushered in an enduring golden age.
The world called her a “poisonous empress,” but only she knew that her poison was for the wicked, and her tenderness for the man she loved. In this life, vengeance would be taken and debts repaid. She would offer the realm as her betrothal gift and guard it together with him!
Very well written, looking forward to it...