A Guide to Raising a Powerful Minister's Wife

Three cups of wine for the mortal world, one game of chess for the realm. We play beneath a shadowed window, then listen to the rain together. Year after year, the world keeps turning. On the day her maternal grandfather died, Xie Jiuning accidentally overheard her maternal grandmother and aunt conspiring to marry her off as soon as possible, by any means necessary. Her maternal cousins all began courting her, treating her as if she were already theirs. Her father, far away in the capital, sent her a blank marriage contract and urged her to marry quickly, lest she attract unpredictable covetous eyes and invite danger. Then a distant cousin she barely knew suddenly appeared in her boudoir and proposed to her. Xie Jiuning put her aunt in her place, rejected her cousins who were within five degrees of kinship, and followed her father's wishes by choosing to marry Yu Zhun, the distant collateral cousin who had appeared at just the right moment. She had no idea that Yu Zhun had been scheming toward this for a long time. - In his previous life, Yu Zhun backed a claimant to the throne and helped him seize power. As the new emperor's trusted aide, he rose to the top, becoming the foremost official in the land and the preeminent scholar of his era. Looking back on his life, the only thing he could never forget was reuniting with an old acquaintance from his youth on the night of a palace coup. The young woman was mired in the mud, her beauty faded, but her eyes remained as clear as ever when she called him "Cousin." When he fell in love with her, she was resilient and brave, gentle and compassionate. He regarded her as the bright moon in the heavens, too far above him to reach for. But when he awoke from the dreams of his past, Yu Zhun thought: The moon shines on a thousand rivers, but better still if I could hold it in my arms. - One-on-one, both leads' first love. A calculating, power-hungry schemer who rises to the top x a wealthy, unconventional woman, tough on the outside and tender within. Three years apart in age, with an older man who takes the lead and a young woman who grows into herself. Not a story about a world-changing heroine, and she won't change the world. The male lead has a career progression arc; he doesn't start out in a high position. A bowl of everyday family life, seasoned with a spoonful of palace intrigue and political turmoil, served seven-tenths sweet and without ice. Set in a Ming-inspired world. The characters' thoughts and actions are shaped by the limits of their era. If anything makes you uncomfortable, please leave. Don't force yourself ^ ^ . About the weightlifting champion: "The capital and sixteen provinces of the Great Chen Dynasty rest on my shoulders." Grand Secretary Yu never said this Theme: Follow the Great Dao