The Real Heiress Has Paranoia

Unconventional plot + ensemble cast + political intrigue + investigations + struggle for supremacy in troubled times + light comedy + revival of civilization

No pitting women against each other, no gender antagonism, with a heroine who grows over time

Shen Qingwu thought she was the chosen protagonist, but the people in this world would not wait for her like characters in a written script.

On the first day Shen Qingwu returned to her family home, she pressed a pair of scissors to her blind younger sister’s throat.

Her sister snatched them away. “Sister, if you want to hurt someone, you need to do it properly.”

Her parents worried that she was too wild. At a banquet, she turned around and challenged the Lessons for Women: “If there are Lessons for Women, why are there no Lessons for Men? Are these rules meant to bind women alone?”

Later, she became a pioneer in opening up the path for women to serve as officials.

She met a group of female soldiers who disguised themselves as men to distinguish themselves in battle. (Their story begins at chapter 33; their identities are exposed at chapter 48.)

But with a tyrannical empress before them, everyone at court lived in fear. The slightest misstep...

She was exiled, but found soil better suited to her there! (The exile begins at chapter 89 and the exile storyline proper at chapter 99. In between, Liu Yurou has her moments in the spotlight, but the entire story remains shaped by the heroine’s influence.)

Can she rise again and contend for supremacy over the realm?