Princess Zhaohua, Zhao Ning, is known throughout the capital as a good-for-nothing: she sleeps through birthday banquets, talks nonsense in class, nods when scolded, and packs up osmanthus cakes after polishing off a pork knuckle. Yet the cold-faced Regent dotes on her alone, filling her courtyard with snacks and assigning her eight shadow guards. Anyone who dares offend her will see their whole family exiled the next day. When an enemy prince falsely accuses her of treason, she sips tea and yawns. “This handwriting is far too pretty. How could I have done it?” The whole court thinks she coasts to victory on luck, until she personally sends every enemy packing. Only then do they realize that this lazy princess never pretended to be anything else.
