Su Jin served two empresses. The first was the most dazzling woman she had ever seen in her life. The second was still very young.
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People in the village all said that the Su family's girl had gone mad.
Her family was so poor they could barely afford to eat, yet instead of learning embroidery and getting married, she insisted on doing farmwork and then going to that so-called Book Well to work as an unpaid cleaning maid.
Su Jin didn't care what anyone thought.
Later, the empress ascended the throne, and women were allowed to take the imperial examinations.
From a village girl, she fought her way into the Golden Hall.
During the palace examination, the empress asked her, "Where are you from?"
She lifted her eyes to the empress above and answered solemnly, "Qingxi Town."
She thought she could help the empress usher in an age of peace and prosperity, but the empress suddenly died of illness. As the first female official the empress had ever chosen, she was sidelined and suppressed by the new emperor.
Everyone said the empress's legend ended there, but she didn't believe it.
Later, war began in Chen, and within just two or three years the whole realm fell into chaos. As the land was torn apart, she reunited with the empress who had single-handedly swept away the old ways and brought reform.
The empress was frail, and a timid child was now by her side.
She asked the empress, "What is her name?"
"Jiang Qingyan," the empress replied. "Qingyan, as in a land of peace and clear rivers."
In the empress's name, she issued a proclamation, and the banner that belonged only to the empress unfurled once more in the wind.
Later, when the empress died, she accepted the dying decree entrusting the child to her care. Kneeling before her, she promised, "Your Majesty, I will walk the road you could not finish for you."
From village girl to powerful minister, from an abandoned, isolated official to the empress's chosen regent.
She spent half her life telling the people of the realm: I will fulfill Emperor Zhao's unfinished dream of unifying the land.
Theme: As a dynasty teeters on the brink, who will determine the fate of the realm?
