The first thing Chong Mo did in his life was calculation.
When she was squatting by the well in the back garden of Shen's house doing laundry, she was counting how long it would take to soak her aunt's clothes and how many times she would need to rub her aunt's silk fabrics.
When she was fifteen, a young man riding a white horse passed by outside the low wall and glanced at her sideways. She is also calculating whether this person can take me away.
He didn't. She watched the white horse disappear at the end of the low wall, took her hand out of the soapy water, and said to herself: She has to go by herself.
Later she entered the palace and became the queen.
The civil and military officials in the court called her the Demon Queen, but she didn't care. She continued to calculate - who belonged to whom in the court, where nails could be placed in the six departments, and whether the emperor who was lingering on the sickbed was really in a coma.
After ten years of calculation, she figured out every door, every lock, and every secret passage in Luoyang City.
Until one day she discovered that after counting for so long, the account books were all filled with other people's names, not her own.
She closed the ledger.
This time, she wanted to take care of herself.
