[Dream of the Red Chamber] The Story of Empress Lin

“Empress Huiwen, née Lin, childhood name Mi Yan, was the daughter of a marquis's secondary wife and the elder sister of Lin Hai, Imperial Salt Commissioner and Vice Minister of the Lantai Bureau. She entered the palace at fourteen, first as a concubine of the Eastern Palace, then promoted to Junior Consort. In the seventeenth year of Shunping, she followed Emperor Wu into exile in Tongzhou. During that time, she gave birth to a son who died young and a daughter, Grand Princess Jingting. In the twenty-seventh year of Shunping, Emperor Wu ascended the throne and changed the era name to Shunchang. Lin was made Noble Consort and lived in Changchun Palace. In the second year of Shunchang, she gave birth to Emperor Hui, Emperor Wu's fourth son, and was made Imperial Noble Consort. She died in the fifth year of Shunchang at the age of thirty. She was posthumously made Empress Hui and buried at Anling with the rites of the primary empress. In the nineteenth year of Shunchang, Emperor Wu abdicated, deposed Empress Xiao as a commoner, adopted Xiao's son to the late emperor's younger half-brother, and issued an edict ennobling Lin's maternal family. Lin was posthumously made Empress Huiwen.”, Draft History of the Xi Dynasty: Biographies of the Imperial Consorts, Part One

As someone who had read the original novel and transmigrated into its world, Lin Mi Yan scoffed at the beloved empress in the story. Born a concubine's daughter, she was unloved by her father, and her mother had lost a daughter. After marriage, she spent some time in the Eastern Palace in an awkward position. When the male lead fell from power, she suffered alongside the scumbag emperor for ten years, yet was only made empress posthumously. Not only did one of her sons die young, but her daughter and younger son had to spend more than ten years living at the female lead's mercy. If her family hadn't been competent, and the scumbag emperor hadn't finally been forced to see reason, the remaining two would probably have been harmed by the white-lotus female lead.

Xiao, a deposed empress who had been reborn, vowed to learn from her past mistakes this time around. She would kill Lin Mi Yan and the two earlier obstacles, put her own son on the throne, and rise to become empress dowager.

A two-faced emperor who has been reborn × a naive, sweet empress who has read the original novel.

PS: This may end up as a brainless power fantasy, so just enjoy it. The heroine is Lin Ruhai's elder sister by a concubine, the eldest child in the family and the marquis's eldest daughter by a secondary wife. Lin's family won't be villainized, but the Jia family will be portrayed a little negatively. Jia Min may be changed into Lin Ruhai's second wife, and Lin Daiyu may have legitimate older half-siblings. The story enters VIP serialization on January 8, with a 10,000-word update that day.

[PS: My new story, How to Divorce the Tyrant Nero Amicably (Ancient Rome), has its bonus chapters in Irregularly Updated Ideas. Visit my collection to find it.]

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