(The main story is in third person.)
You transmigrate into the body of a low-ranking official in the Hanlin Academy.
You were born frail and had little physical development, so you don't even need to bind your chest to look flat.
You take your wife and children out to see the lanterns, look up, and find yourself face-to-face with the Crown Prince, who is traveling incognito.
His gaze, utterly unruffled, passes through the noisy crowd and settles lazily on you.
You immediately lower your head, not daring to meet the eyes of the Crown Prince, famed for his breathtaking looks and almost demonic intelligence.
After that night, your insignificant official rank suddenly goes on a roller coaster, and you leap to the position of a fifth-rank Hanlin Academy scholar.
The Crown Prince takes a particular interest in you. Every day after work, he invites you to talk by candlelight late into the night.
Before long, your colleagues envy you, your relatives curry favor with you, and your friends admire you.
You have a vague sense that something is strange, but you can't quite put your finger on it.
Three years pass like this.
You become the Crown Prince's most trusted favorite, and he can hardly bear to be away from you for even a moment.
You often stay with him until midnight and have no choice but to spend the night in the Eastern Palace. You have no time at all to look after your wife and children.
Just as you're beginning to think about resigning,
your wife suddenly dies of an illness.
As a hot new star in officialdom, you have countless people eager to play matchmaker for you.
But you're actually a woman, so you can't possibly accept any of their offers.
As luck would have it, your cousin, whom you've known inside and out since childhood, is widowed while pregnant and comes to you for help.
Raising someone else's son?
You're familiar with that job.
The day after getting engaged to your cousin, you go to the Eastern Palace to tell the Crown Prince about your marriage.
The Crown Prince is having breakfast. When he hears the news, he sets down his chopsticks and slowly washes his hands.
"I never wished to stand in the way of your path to a place in history, but you have forced my hand."
He looks at you and smiles faintly.
His usually cool eyes are tinged red, his expression on the verge of madness.
"Either I kill your lovely fiancee, or you stay with me... Song Zhen, choose one."
Theme: Freedom above all else
