In her previous life, Wu Yiling was a queen from the Qingpu tribe, married into the Kingdom of Zhao as part of a political alliance. Her husband showed her no respect, the concubines held her in contempt, and when she scolded the emperor's most favored consort, the emperor punished her by making her kneel outside her own Kunning Palace in the sweltering heat. The emperor she had married for the alliance literally angered her to death, making her cough up blood and die.
When she opens her eyes again, she has returned to the morning she was punished. Facing the emperor's defense of his consort, she no longer meets him head-on. Instead, she chooses to yield. After all, a gentle blade cuts deeper with every stroke.
Rather than let others hold the string of her fate like a kite, she will hold it herself.
She wants to be Empress Dowager more than she wants to be Empress. So she needs a son or daughter, or her scumbag husband will depose her on the grounds that the empress has no children.
Wu Yiling chooses the Seventh Prince, Pei Xiaojue. His mother was a noble lady who died soon after giving birth to him, making him an ideal puppet emperor. She is more than willing to become his mother. But many years after they form an alliance, who can tell her why this child has fallen in love with her and, on top of that, wants to imprison her by force?
In the midst of her fury, an idea occurs to Wu Yiling: why should she support a child as a puppet emperor and become Empress Dowager? Why not take the throne herself?
She is a princess of the mighty Qingpu tribe. If she can rule Qingpu instead of becoming a political bride, then surely she can rule Zhao as well...
In the end, Wu Yiling outmaneuvers the puppet emperor she raised with her own hands once more, then takes the throne for herself.
Theme: Take control of your own fate
