[Strong Female Lead + Powerful Couple + Heroine's Career Arc + Fast-Paced + Both Leads Are Smart + Making Money Before Political Intrigue]
[Smart, independent, money-loving heroine x Charming, easygoing prince with a hidden dark side]
Chu Weiyi, an outstanding student of political economy, unexpectedly transmigrates into the body of the prime minister's daughter in the Ding Kingdom. Before long, her family falls into ruin, and she is thrown into a high-security prison. There she meets a shameless young thief named Xie Yuzhi, who calls himself “Ergou.” The two are cut from the same cloth and hatch a plan to break out together. After they succeed, Chu Weiyi escapes alone to the Great Yong Kingdom. There, she uses all kinds of modern marketing tricks to build a booming business in scented oils: hunger marketing, loss-leader promotions, branding, futures, target demographics, even fan campaigns in the imperial harem and franchise chains. She pulls out every trick in the book and quickly builds a commercial empire of her own. By chance, she runs into her former cellmate, the young thief, in Yong. The man turns out to be Prince Yu of Yong, plotting to seize the throne! And as it happens, Chu Weiyi's expertise is a perfect match: she understands geopolitics and the art of governing a state, so for old times' sake, she gives him a casual little hand in claiming the throne.
What? I help you seize the throne, and now you want me, the richest woman in the Yong capital, to be your empress? That's repaying kindness with resentment, and returning a favor with a grudge!
“I'm begging you. Do you want me to become the only emperor in history without an empress?” Xie Yuzhi puts on a pitiful act.
“Hmm… I honestly can't think of a single advantage to becoming empress.”
“How about this? You already helped win this vast kingdom, so if you become empress, you can make free use of anything you like. Don't you want your shops to spread across the land and your business to reach the four seas?”
*A story about one ambitious schemer meeting another.
