Eleven Years of Scheming to Win Over a Powerful Minister

[Decent enough, worth a read]

[Written from an omniscient perspective. The female lead is an ambitious villainess.]

In the gloomy prison of the fifth year of Jianing, Xu Caiwei was disgusted by Chancellor Shen Xingzhi's lecherous advances and shoved him away. The next moment, she was handed a cup of poisoned wine.

He had been constrained by his sex from childhood, and dressing as a woman had always felt like a humiliation.

But he didn't die. When he opened his eyes, he found himself back in the thirty-second year of Qingyuan, when Shen the Mad Dog was nine years old.

He swore a solemn oath: Shen the Mad Dog would meet a terrible end.

So he watched coldly as Shen Xingzhi lost his father and mother, clawed his way up from the mire to become chancellor, and even added fuel to the fire when Shen's life hung in the balance.

Who could have guessed that fate would turn so quickly? With a mere flip of his hand, Shen the Madman looked down at him with mocking eyes and ground him beneath his feet.

"Darling, I gave you the chance to stay by my side as my lawfully wedded spouse, but you refused. What am I supposed to do? I no longer feel like conquering the world just to build you a golden cage and keep you in it."

Shen Xingzhi had a "fiancee." She had thought that since she was a woman disguised as a man, her fiancee was a man disguised as a woman. A false phoenix pairing, treating each other with respect; it would have made a fine life.

But ever since Shen Xingzhi met his fiancee, the disgust in her eyes had deeply wounded the little affection he had left.

The weather turned cold, and so did his heart.

The madman of the Shen family truly became a monstrous lunatic, manipulating the board and conquering one stronghold after another.

Before you read:

1. The male lead disguises himself as a woman, and the female lead disguises herself as a man.

2. The story has two volumes, but two more volumes have yet to come out. This blurb only covers the male lead, Xu Caiwei, in the current volume.

The male leads of the other two volumes are different characters, so those stories will be published separately. The continuation will have a significant romance plot, which is why this is categorized as romance instead of no-CP.

3. The continuation will be published later. The advance listing is in my author page under The Usurper.

I'm still thinking about starting from the beginning and writing it steadily. The main plot will stay the same.

Theme: You can't have your cake and eat it too. Prejudice harms both others and yourself.