Starting from: On the banks of the Lizhou River, a girl named Wu Zhao was born with red marks on her palms. She found half a phoenix and tiger talisman on the river beach. She asked "Why can't women study" in public at the academy? She grew up stubbornly under her father's strict discipline. She exchanged tokens with the young general Liang Xiaohu by the moonlit stream and made a private life decision.
Inheritance: Liang Xiaohu was ordered to go on an expedition. He folded his flute before leaving and swore an oath - "When I return in triumph and the flute body becomes one, I will propose marriage to the governor." Wu Zhao stayed alone in Lizhou, studying classics, practicing riding and archery, and waiting for his beloved to return. However, bad news suddenly broke out at the border. Liang Xiaohu died in battle. Among the relics were a blood-stained jade Buddha and a half-cut flute.
Reprint: Wu Zhao took the relic and didn't cry. He just squatted down and buried his face in his knees. From that moment on, something hard grew in the girl's heart. She put aside her love for her children and devoted all her heart to a more ambitious road - entering the palace, competing, going from being a talented person to Zhaoyi, and from being a queen to the world.
Together: The stubborn girl who lived by the Lizhou River in the past rose to the top of power step by step and became the only female emperor in Chinese history. And the half tiger charm and the jade Buddha were always hidden in the deepest part of her heart, becoming her weakness and hardest armor that she had never shown.
Intent: The image of "phoenix cry" is used throughout the whole story, and the destiny and human affairs are connected through objects such as tiger charms, jade Buddha, and red marks on the phoenix tail; focusing on Wu Zetian's teenage years before she became emperor, injecting warmth and flesh and blood into the skeleton of official history, retelling how a generation of empresses grew up from pain.