Wu Zhao, a seventeen-year-old herb collector, never thought that she would be related to the palace. Until an edict brought her into the palace, the dying empress Wu Zetian looked at her face and said the words that changed her fate - "I want you to be the next emperor."
She is not a member of the Wu family, nor is she a member of the royal family. She is just a stand-in who looks like Wu Zetian when she was young. The blood of the Ministry of Punishment Prison, Empress Wei's poisoned wine, Princess Taiping's knife, Liu Wenjing's innocent soul... She was pushed to the edge of power step by step, forced to sign an execution order, and forced to live in lies. But when the truth is revealed - her whole family was burned to death by the "benefactor" in front of her, should she hate it or kneel down?
Two testamentary edicts were placed in front of her: one made her emperor, and the other asked her to burn the edict and return to power. Taiping wanted to kill her, Empress Wei wanted to poison her, and Wu Sansi wanted to destroy her. Everyone thought she would grab the crown, but she threw the edict into the fire in front of all the officials.
"I don't want to be anyone's shadow. When she becomes emperor, she wins."
She walked out of the palace and became herself from a substitute. Twenty years later, outside Luoyang City, a wordless monument was engraved with the answer she left to the world - my life does not need to be defined by an inscription.
This is a story about substitute and self, hatred and relief, power and original intention. What Wu Zetian failed to do, she did: live, and then live as herself.
