Amid an argument outside the Civil Affairs Bureau, my husband and I transmigrated together as the emperor and empress consort of the Great Zhou dynasty.
He was an emperor who loved only me, and I was Consort Wan, whom he raised to the position of empress.
Gravely ill and without an heir, he defied the court and personally handed me the imperial robes. Drawing on my modern knowledge, I transformed Great Zhou:
The workshops roared with flowing molten iron, mighty ships cut through the waves along the coast, booming firearms quelled border threats, and the realm expanded across thousands of miles of open sea.
In sixty years as an empress, I created an era of prosperity unlike any in history. As I lay dying, all that remained in my heart was his tenderness.
When I opened my eyes again, I was back outside the Civil Affairs Bureau. Looking at my husband, who was arguing about divorce, I finally understood:
This journey across a thousand years had never been an accident. It was our shared pursuit of love and ambition across the ages.
