[Pure historical setting + devoted couple + personal growth + revenge]
Xu Lingyi was the gentle, quiet, and timid legitimate daughter of the General’s Manor of Zhen Guo in Northern Chu. But a military treatise led to her family being executed. Her parents died before her eyes, and her only brother disappeared without a trace. After that, she became unyielding.
Qi Yunchuan was once the most favored prince of Southern Qi, but he spent ten years as a hostage in Northern Chu.
He played the fool while hiding his strength, serving as a secret pawn in Northern Chu for ten years, all so he could one day avenge his mother’s murder.
When he escaped back to Southern Qi, he went to great lengths to bring Xu Lingyi with him.
That day, Xu Lingyi said:
“You’re going back to Southern Qi, and I want to go there too. At least for now, we’re headed in the same direction. Why don’t we be honest with each other for a little while?”
All Qi Yunchuan heard was, “We’re headed in the same direction.”
When she first arrived at the military camp and the others questioned her identity, Xu Lingyi shouted, “My parents said I’m so girly I’d be perfect as a palace eunuch. I don’t want to become a eunuch, so I came to be a soldier instead. One day, I’ll be manlier than all of you!”
She and Qi Yunchuan overcame one challenge after another together, helping each other grow.
In the end, she found her brother, who had been hiding in the capital of Northern Chu under the alias “Mr. Ghost,” and joined forces with him from within and without to take the capital.
Xu Lingyi personally killed the corrupt, incompetent emperor who had murdered her family. She also tracked down and punished every treacherous official who had framed her father.
With the outcome decided, she finally agreed to marry Qi Yunchuan and become his empress.
From then on, the emperor and empress ruled the land together, and their story became a celebrated legend.
