When agronomy PhD Gu Changning opens her eyes, she finds herself a foolish concubine-born daughter shoved into a bridal sedan to take another bride's place. The Prince of Yong's heir, whose three previous wives all died, is waiting for her to walk into his trap. Her own relatives, scheming as one, expect her to accept her fate and die. But she refuses. Armed with secret seed-breeding techniques and working barren, saline land, she starts with a single experimental field. She builds trading firms, sets standards, establishes banks and creates commercial law, using modern business principles to stir up a storm in an ancient dynasty. There is no prince coming to rescue her, no devoted hero protecting her. There is only a woman using her abacus and contracts to inscribe the idea of credit into the very bones of the Great Liang. When the once lowly concubine-born daughter stands in court and challenges the chancellor for the power to set the rules, the world finally understands: she doesn't want anyone's affection. She wants the whole world to run by her rules.
