Shen Qing, a ruthless workplace queen, dies from overwork and opens her eyes to find herself a hapless palace maid in the Wu Zhou imperial palace, being beaten with a board.
Her crime: poisoning a beloved concubine’s cat. There are eyewitnesses and physical evidence, and twenty more strikes will kill her.
She neither cries nor begs. Instead, she fixes her gaze on her accuser and asks three questions in a row, leaving them speechless. In the crowd, Wu Zetian narrows her eyes.
It takes Shen Qing just six months to go from a convict in the Shangyi Bureau to the empress’s trusted confidante.
Her weapons aren’t coquettish charm or palace intrigue. Piece-rate pay exposes the people who slack off, talent reviews root out the well-connected deadweight, and 360-degree evaluations make the cruel officials pay for their crimes.
Lai Junchen raises his cup with a sneer. “The people who crossed me last time have more grass growing on their graves than you’re tall.”
Shen Qing looks up at him. “Lord Lai, did you know your staff’s satisfaction score is only two points?”
One uses The Classic of Snares to kill people; the other uses KPIs to destroy them from within.
The most terrifying game of power in the Great Zhou dynasty has just gained its first player who refuses to follow the rules.
