On the first day of Jiang Lingyao’s appointment as empress, a history book suddenly appeared before her eyes, visible only to her.
The first page read:
【The wicked Empress Jiang was jealous and cruel, and threw the court into chaos.】
【Three months after entering the palace, she slapped a favored consort.】
【One year after entering the palace, she drove the empress dowager to her death.】
【Emperor Jing died suddenly at thirty-seven. Empress Jiang kept his death secret and put a young emperor on the throne, ruling behind the scenes for fifteen years.】
【Later generations called her the Great Zhao Dynasty’s most wicked empress.】
Jiang Lingyao: “...”
She had just turned eighteen.
The emperor was twenty-four.
The empress dowager was alive and well in Cining Palace.
How exactly was she supposed to throw the court into chaos?
To avoid being remembered as a villain for all eternity, Jiang Lingyao decided that from that day on, she would be virtuous and graceful, and endure whatever anyone did to her.
Later, she discovered that this wretched history book could change.
When she saved a palace maid who was supposed to die, a line vanished from the book.
When she stopped an old case from unfolding, a new page appeared.
So Jiang Lingyao fixed her sights on the most fateful line in the book:
【Emperor Jing died suddenly at thirty-seven.】
After that, Emperor Pei Zhaoyan noticed that his empress was acting stranger and stranger.
He coughed once, and she summoned the imperial physicians to the palace in the middle of the night.
He drank a couple of extra cups of wine, and she took his cup away.
He planned to go hunting, and she had his horse inspected three times in advance.
One night, Pei Zhaoyan finally pinned her against the desk and asked in a low voice,
“Are you really that afraid of me dying, Empress?”
Jiang Lingyao thought, Obviously.
If you die, I’ll be remembered as a villain for all eternity!
But why, the more she tried to save him, the more bad luck seemed to befall the emperor?
And as his misfortune piled up, how had she become the culprit?