The dignified, aloof, sharp-tongued head wife x the silly, clever-in-her-own-way, adorable concubine
The Empress has ascended the throne, and the great clans hold sway. Pei Heng, the Marquis's principal wife,
has never fought her battles in the inner household. Her battlefield is the court. She is the Empress's secret agent, holding evidence that half the capital's generals are plotting rebellion, and waiting for the right moment to close the net.
To place her own people in the household, she takes the initiative and proposes taking a concubine.
Liu Zhao is the first to be sent in. The daughter of a minor official and born to a concubine, she lost her mother young and is treated by her own father as a bargaining chip for his promotion. But she doesn't care. She has read storybooks for over a decade and firmly believes that inner-household schemes follow a formula. Before entering the residence, she spent an entire week rehearsing with her maid, brimming with confidence.
Then she meets Pei Heng.
Her fainting act is seen through, her soup is intercepted, and her feigned illness turns real. Every time Pei Heng humiliates her in public, she grits her teeth in fury. "Why doesn't this woman follow the storybook rules?"
Pei Heng calls her a pig, and she cries in anger. Pei Heng sends her pastries, and she gets even angrier: "Is she calling me a pig?"
She swears she'll beat Pei Heng at least once, only to realize she's becoming more and more concerned about the wicked woman.
Later, she switches to a new storybook: How to Make the Principal Wife Wait on Me
