In the first year of Tyrant Pei Zhao's reign, a meteor fell from the sky. Rumors spread among the people: "The tyrant has lost Heaven's favor, and Heaven has sent down divine punishment." Rebels began stirring.
Shen Qingqiu, a top public-relations expert who had just transmigrated into the body of a low-ranking ninth-grade official in the Hanlin Academy, was bound to the "Great Zhou Public Opinion Monitoring Network." With the people's anger hitting a record high and her own head about to roll, she stayed up all night writing a press release and sent people to tea houses to tell the story:
"This is Heaven-sent dark iron! The Lord above saw that our emperor's martial prowess is peerless, so he bestowed the material to forge divine weapons. It foretells that Great Zhou will soon unite the realm!"
The people rejoiced, the rebels were dumbfounded, and the tyrant quietly sheathed his bloodstained sword.
From then on, the court of Great Zhou underwent a dramatic change...
The tyrant wanted to build a hundred-zhang-high Tyrant Tower to intimidate the realm? Shen Qingqiu spun it into a "Free Clinic for the Elderly and Children," forcing him to empty his private treasury for charity!
The tyrant stayed overnight in his favorite consort's palace after a sleepless night, skipping court? Shen Qingqiu rushed to print "He Was a Bloodied Tyrant, Yet for Her He Willingly Fell into Endless Darkness," turning the foolish ruler into a devoted lover who had gone temporarily blind after testing medicine for his beloved consort. Noblewomen across the capital were moved to tears and donated money!
Following the principle of "using falsehood to make the truth real," Shen Qingqiu helped the tyrant buy trending topics and whitewash his image, while using his reputation as a sage ruler to push him into building waterworks, reducing taxes, publishing an official gazette, and taking on the great clans.
Until one day, Pei Zhao looked at how he had gone from a tyrant reviled by everyone to a sage emperor revered by the people. He cornered her against the wall of the imperial study, his ears red as he gritted his teeth and said:
"My dear Shen, you've already bragged me into being all this. When are you planning to take the throne as empress and the office of chancellor, too?"
