Who Says You're the Only One Who Can Rule the Realm?

[Alternate History + Court Intrigue + Strong Female Lead + System] The time in the upper-right corner of the screen read 4:17 a.m. At the bottom of the document, the word count stood at 187,462. Li Zhao rubbed her dry, aching eyes and deleted the draft of Li Xiuning’s death chapter for the sixth time. The histories said that Princess Pingyang died suddenly in the sixth year of Wude, though the cause was unknown. They left behind only this line: “Forty attendants bearing feathered banners and drums, a grand carriage, pennants and halberds, and armored Tiger Guards.” She stared at the words for a long time, fingers hovering over the keyboard, unable to type a single character. The woman who had rallied an army of seventy thousand in just over three months and defended half the empire for the Li Tang dynasty occupied barely three hundred words in the histories. The cause of her death was a mystery, and even her name had nearly vanished behind the words “Lady Li,” leaving only the cold title of princess. The more Li Zhao wrote, the more dissatisfied she became. The more dissatisfied she was, the later she stayed up. Her eyes were so sore she could barely keep them open, but she still didn’t want to stop. She gave Li Xiuning a happy ending: celebrated military victories, a peaceful old age, children and grandchildren gathered around her, and laws reforming the military listed in the court records. Just as she finished writing, her heart suddenly clenched, as if a string inside her chest had snapped. She slumped over the keyboard. Before her vision went dark, she saw the last line on the screen: “I dedicate this book to the names swallowed by history.” “Obsessive attachment exceeds the threshold. Binding requirements met. ‘My Unfulfilled Wish System No. 7806’ starting, ”