Folding Pearls on Horseback

[The truth is out! I came back for revenge, not to become empress]

[Court intrigue + ruthless heroine + revenge and power struggle]

(Tang Yuning was abandoned by the marquis’s household for sixteen years. She returned home to seek revenge, only to discover amid the struggle at the heart of power that she was a fake daughter of the Tang family?)

When she first arrived in the capital, a good life was the last thing waiting for her.

People saw her as a wicked demon in the lovely face of an empress. They said she abused her power and was guilty of every crime, that she had caused the deaths of her own parents, and that even the young heir, once a spoiled idler who knew nothing of the world, had been locked away in the Court of Judicial Review’s prison.

The Xuanwu Marquis defected to the enemy? The young heir embezzled funds?

Tang Yuning promptly switched sides to join Prince Xu Kang. She even went on to tease the crown prince, the emperor’s own carefully reared contender. She watched with satisfaction as a corner of the emperor’s carefully laid game was torn open by a group of powerful ministers, their heads turned by the prospect of helping the new ruler ascend the throne.

Who can say whether Zhou dreams of being a butterfly, or a butterfly dreams of being Zhou?

Everyone says that when a hen crows at dawn, the family is doomed.

Daji brought down the Shang, and Bao Si brought chaos to the Zhou.

Tang Yuning paid them no mind. Clad in plain robes that did nothing to hide her brilliance, she declared, “I, the marquis, will either return home in glory, wrapped in my armor, or today I’ll show you how the three hundred thousand heavy cavalry at my command can trample this city, take the traitor’s head, and win a road home for the people behind me who have no home to return to!”