Through cunning and calculated moves, the young Ruolan establishes herself in the capital. She uses her influence and charm to befriend the powerful, then turns those connections into benefits for her family, bringing it wealth, renown, and status. In the end, the family falls into decline, and everything settles into place. Ruolan does not choose to become empress or resign herself to life confined to the inner quarters. Instead, she and Pei Zheng forge an intensely free and exclusive symbiotic bond, and she truly becomes the master of her own fate.
