Su Jinyao has died once.
In her previous life, she rose from a palace attendant in the Chuxiu Palace to empress in the Kunning Palace, and stood by Kangxi through the years of capturing Ao Bai and pacifying the Three Feudatories. He held her hand and said, “Half of my empire is yours.”
She believed him. In return, she received an imperial decree ordering her entire family executed.
Reborn in the year of the selection, she kneels among a group of candidates. The same sun hangs overhead, and the same man stands before her. He is still young and spirited, not yet the suspicious and ruthless emperor he would become.
But she is no longer the girl she once was.
In this life, she wants no romance between emperor and empress. All she asks is to stay alive and keep the entire Su family safe.
But when she refuses to fight, someone forces her to. When she takes one step back, someone advances ten. At last, with a blade at the throat of someone dear to her, she has nowhere left to retreat.
Fine. If they won’t let her live in peace...
She took thirty years to climb from palace attendant to empress dowager in her previous life. This time, she’s done playing nice. She’ll make the climb much faster.
