The Mad Empress's Guide to Palace Intrigue

The day Gu Lan Yin passed the selection, she had already commissioned a palace-intrigue manual just for herself, and she followed it with composure.

First came the struggle between wives and concubines. When the emperor was still a prince, she rose from the position of a lowly concubine to become his principal wife. Then, at the crucial moment in the struggle for the throne, she gave the prince a stratagem.

Now she had become empress.

And she began devising even more detailed plans.

Seeing how seriously she was taking things, her maid Xiaoyuan could not help saying, "My lady, do you really need to be so cautious on your very first day as empress? We finally made it through all those hardships. During the competition, we had to be more understanding and more lovable than the other ladies at every turn just to rise one rank. Now that you're empress, can't we enjoy a little comfort?"

(Content warnings: a deranged, cold-hearted female lead, a perspective rooted among ordinary palace servants, and other unexpected warning layers)

Theme: What power means to people