The Emperor Is Gentle by Nature

One-sentence summary: I'll take your life and fortune to secure my own rise to power. As always, the heroine is a silver-tongued, ruthless, cold-hearted schemer. She uses everyone, men and women alike. Every man is disposable, tossed aside as soon as she's done with him. She has her eyes fixed on the heights of power. Basically, it's a story about fighting for power, killing fathers and older brothers, imprisoning husbands, disinheriting sons, and seizing the throne. The new emperor has ascended the throne, but the court is still unstable. Taking advantage of the chaos, the Northern Barbarians launch a surprise attack, and the political landscape is thrown into turmoil overnight. The peace faction, led by Duke Shen, submits memorials one after another, urging the new emperor to send his own sister, Princess Ninghuai, north to marry into the enemy's court. Furious, the new emperor decrees in public that the daughter of Duke Shen and Commandery Princess Leping be made a commandery princess and sent to the Northern Barbarians. On the day she is named An'guo Commandery Princess and is to be sent north for a political marriage, Shen Anyi enters the palace to thank the emperor. No one could have imagined that this woman, a clan relative renowned in the capital for her decorum and virtue, would dare to seduce the emperor. The imperial study is in disarray. The new emperor grips the woman's chin. Though satisfaction still lingers at the corners of his eyes, his voice is as cold as ice. Ignoring the intimacy they had shared moments ago, Sheng He'an looks at her as if she were a lifeless thing. "Commandery Princess An'guo, you should go back and prepare to leave." Theme: In the arena of power, gender makes no difference.