#Rise of the Underdog #Political Scheming #Patient Prince #Chessmaster Plotting for the Empire #Ancient Court Intrigue #Lonely Emperor
Everyone mocks me as a useless, spineless prince, never realizing that I control every move in the court's game of chess.
At six, my mother was falsely accused of witchcraft and died in the snow, with no one pleading for her.
To survive, Li Yuan pretended to be a good-for-nothing prince for ten years.
Humiliated in public by his brothers, looked down on by the officials, and forgotten by the emperor.
While everyone else fought over the throne, he moved his pieces in the shadows.
He handed out blades to topple the empress's relatives, concealed secrets to dismantle the assassins, and exposed scandals to crush the officials' faction.
The court ran red with blood, but the blame never fell on the “good-for-nothing.”
When a coup plunged the court into chaos and the princes turned against one another, he reaped the rewards and ascended the throne.
He settled accounts with every enemy, but lost every close friend and trusted aide.
He ruled an empire spanning ten thousand miles, yet lived and died utterly alone.
In his final years, he left behind a letter declaring that emperors have no friends, then departed this world.
Every character is a brilliant schemer. A decade of patient plotting in the shadows. No romance, no brainless plotlines.
