Three months after Cui Lingyi's wedding, she was sent to the Regent Pei Xuando's mansion by her husband Ning Zhi'an in exchange for the Ning family's Qingyun Road. Everyone was waiting to see her become a plaything of powerful officials, but she borrowed an account book to pry open the shady curtain of salt and iron, using the palace as a game and the harem as a chess piece. Pei Xuandu went from being defensive to falling in love. The female officer Jiang Hanzhang helped her investigate old cases, and the young emperor Zhao Wenjing gradually took over the imperial power with her help. When Empress Dowager Lu stirred up the controversy of deposing the emperor, Cui Lingyi finally understood: Instead of waiting for others to choose her fate, it is better to sit on the throne with her own hands.
