A Journey Through Chang'an in Brocade Robes

My name is Su Yun. I was a young servant from Jiangnan who dressed as a man to sit the imperial exams. I thought my fate was set: grinding ink and laying out paper for Tang Bohu. But by a twist of fate, I ended up joining the Embroidered Uniform Guard. My colleagues shunned me, my superiors tested me, and powerful ministers wanted me dead. Emperor Jiajing stared at me and asked, “Are you a man or a woman?” I knelt in the great hall, cold sweat soaking through my clothes. One wrong answer would be a crime of deceiving the emperor, punishable by the execution of my entire clan. But I lifted my head and smiled. “Your Majesty, whether I am a man or a woman is not what matters. What matters is that I can safeguard this vast empire for you.” From that day on, I embarked on a path of no return. Xia Yan, who held power over the entire court, wanted to win me over. The ambitious Yan Song wanted to use me. Xu Jie, who had risen to the highest ranks of the court, wanted to get rid of me. And Lu Bing, the brother I trusted most, was looking at me in a way that was getting more and more unsettling... Disguised as a man, I plotted my way to power. From a lowly servant to the Ming Dynasty’s most powerful minister. It took me thirty years to walk this road.