Teaching the Tyrant to Become an Emperor for the Ages

Cheng Yang, a little-known actress with barely any roles to her name, accidentally travels to the Great Chen Dynasty and becomes the consort of the tyrant Yun Ji.

The night Cheng Yang arrives, Yun Ji comes to her chambers.

His imperial presence feels like a cold blade at her throat. Cheng Yang keeps her head bowed, frantically calculating how to survive the tyrant, when Yun Ji orders everyone else out.

Then a long-fingered hand reaches toward her, holding out a crumpled note. Eight crooked characters are written on it:

"Which excavator brand has the best technology?"

Cheng Yang's eyes grow hot.

That familiar, ugly handwriting, that advertising slogan the two of them used to repeat all the time. It has to be her childhood friend.

To survive in the palace, where people eat one another alive, Cheng Yang and the tyrant, whose body has been taken over by her childhood friend, secretly devise a plan to turn things around.

She boldly pats Yun Ji on the shoulder. "You're the tyrant, and I'm a doomed consort. Let's change together. You'll become a good emperor, and I'll become a good empress. We'll make history side by side!"

Yun Ji glances at the hand on his shoulder, then at Cheng Yang. His expression is unreadable, but he slowly nods.

Everything goes very smoothly.

Cheng Yang and Yun Ji join forces to outwit the wicked empress dowager, eliminate corrupt officials, clean up the court, and implement new policies. Thanks to Cheng Yang's painstaking efforts, the tyrant is gradually transformed into a wise ruler, while Cheng Yang rises from the lowest rank of consort to become empress.

Cheng Yang thinks they've got this in the bag. She and her childhood friend will soon be famous throughout history.

Until, on the eve of her empress-making ceremony, a chubby young eunuch grabs her by the leg in the imperial garden.

The eunuch has exactly the same face as her childhood friend, and is sobbing uncontrollably. "Sister Yang! I've been locked up by the tyrant ever since I got here. He snatched all the little notes I wrote to you. I finally get to see you today!"

Cheng Yang's mind goes blank.

The notes from her childhood friend... were snatched?

Then who was the person who gave her that note back then?

Had she been treating the real tyrant so outrageously all this time?

Since seizing the throne and ascending to power, Yun Ji has stained his hands with blood and killed countless people. He has never believed in true love or anyone's sincerity.

Until Cheng Yang appeared.

When his old illness flared up, she helped him calm his breathing and mind. She taught him how to manage people and how to be a benevolent ruler. When those clear eyes looked at him, there was no trace of awe or flattery, as if she saw him as an ordinary person who could feel pain and grow tired.

The heart Yun Ji had kept cold for years slowly grew warm.

For the first time, he fell in love.

But on the day of the empress-making ceremony, Cheng Yang ran away.

Furious, Yun Ji went after her, intending to kill her with his own hands.

But when he actually saw Cheng Yang huddled in a corner, curled into a tiny ball, his heart softened.

He walked over and crouched beside her, his cool, deep voice falling with a laugh:

"Where do you think you're going?"

"My empress."

Theme: Hand in hand, we will build peace across ten thousand miles.