Sold from the Start: From a Minister’s Daughter to Queen of the Kingdom

[Devoted couple + two strong leads + mutual redemption + marriage first, love later + sweet romance + face-slapping] The first year of Jianxing, in the bitter depths of winter, the exiled Third Prince lay at death's door in a ruined temple. A commoner woman passing by with a pack laden with goods handed him an oil lamp. “Don't fall asleep. If you do, you won't be able to warm up again.” She told stories all night, helping him endure the hardest winter of his life. At daybreak, when she was about to leave, he asked, “What is your name?” “Qin Deng.” She lifted her pack. “There's a lamp in my name. I'm meant to light the way for others.” Ten years later, after her adoptive father is framed by the great clans, she kneels outside the Meridian Gate as the daughter of a condemned criminal, about to be sold and made into a human swine. Just when everyone believes she is doomed to die, the decisive, bloodthirsty, solitary emperor arrives through the snow at the Golden Throne Hall. He takes off his cloak scented with dragon's incense and wraps it tightly around the frozen girl. “You lent me a lamp back then.” His voice low and hoarse, the man grasps her frozen hand and pulls her to her feet. “Today, I lend you the rest of my life.” All of the capital assumes the emperor's decision to make a condemned criminal's daughter his Imperial Consort is merely a passing whim. The Empress Dowager makes things difficult for her, the great clans close ranks against her, and scheming consorts secretly try to kill her. They all wait to see the impoverished consort die miserably in the Cold Palace. But who could have guessed? The Imperial Household Department cuts off her charcoal? She gets people making coal briquettes, and they make a fortune! The Empress Dowager's birthday feast has a tight budget? Qin Deng's “investment drive” makes the old woman so furious she spits blood on the spot! The great clans collude with the enemy and cut off the army's supplies? Her merchant caravan escorts provisions for a thousand miles, laying a path of lanterns across the city to light the emperor's way home! Later, the court officials risk their lives to condemn the wicked consort for bringing ruin to the nation. Li Jue sneers and draws the Emperor's Sword, shielding her behind him. “My treasury is filled with the money Imperial Consort Qin earned. Anyone who objects can first cough up all the silver you've embezzled!”