Shen Qingci, a top student of modern Chinese and Western medicine, unexpectedly transmigrates as the daughter of a disgraced official in an alternate early Tang dynasty, trapped in the perilous depths of the imperial palace and the shackles of a patriarchal society. Armed with a "gentle surgeon's scalpel" and a clear-eyed mind, she uses medicine as her blade to fight her way out of desperate situations: when smallpox spreads, she prevents a mass burial; when the Crown Prince falls critically ill, she face-slaps the corrupt, pedantic imperial physicians; during the plague in Chang'an, she braves the infected districts to protect the people. Combining modern medical knowledge with ancient remedies, she makes her mark amid intrigue and deceit.
She gathers female allies, including Yun Xiu, and forges a friendship in which both sides reach for each other. She stands up to the prejudices of powerful clans and face-slaps the "scumbag prince" Li Xian. With Wu Zetian, a figure who is "both male and female," she engages in a deadly tug-of-war of political intrigue, balancing a healer's compassion with an iron hand. From a palace maid enduring humiliation to survive, to a powerful minister holding real authority, and finally to an empress who ascends the throne, she clears her father's name, establishes a system of female physicians, and opens the imperial examinations to women, advancing carefully through betrayal and loyalty.
After changing the era name to "Jinghe," Shen Qingci takes compassion as her foundation and an iron will as her blade. She foils a plot to restore the old order, brings wars at home and abroad to an end, and breaks the thousand-year-old shackles of the saying "a woman without talent is virtuous," finally winning women a place in the world. She writes a legend with her life: "With healing hands, she shapes the realm; with beauty, she commands a golden age."
