Scheming for the Phoenix Seal

When the emperor is enraged, a million corpses lie in his wake. Chancellor Qin fell from grace in a single day, and his entire family was sentenced to death. Their glory and prosperity vanished like smoke. On a rainy night, Xu Wenliang, a former student of the chancellor, risked his life to save the chancellor's three-year-old granddaughter, Qin Wan, and raised her as his own daughter. To conceal her identity, Qin Wan was added to the Xu family genealogy and renamed Xu Siwan. Everyone assumed a three-year-old child would remember nothing, but Xu Siwan was precocious. Thirteen years later, a new emperor ascended the throne and began selecting consorts. Xu Siwan, daughter of the Vice Minister of Revenue, was successfully chosen for the palace. No one knew that from the day she entered the palace, the Qin Wan buried deep in Xu Siwan's heart had come alive. She grew up carrying the hatred of her family's annihilation. She wanted the emperor's favor. She wanted the phoenix seal. She wanted the Great Wei Empire to know no peace. [Warning] *This is a classic palace-intrigue novel, not one of today's popular fluffy romances. If that's not your thing, don't read it. If you do, please don't judge this story by the standards of a fluffy romance. I don't mean to disparage fluffy romances; there's nothing wrong with them, and I have plenty in my author profile. Just a reminder that this story isn't one. *The heroine is "chaotic evil" and "proactive," so from her perspective, it's not a matter of "she offended me, so I'll get back at her" or "she's a villain, so I'll go after her." She makes trouble of her own accord. Please don't read if you dislike this type of character. *Don't mistake a fictional story for reality, and don't treat a novel as a textbook on morals. *There are plenty of stories on Jinjiang, likely over sixty million by now. If this one isn't to your taste, let's spare each other and find another story. [Coming Soon] Reborn: I Won't Be a Virtuous Wife, please add it to your collection~ In her previous life, Chu Qin became the very model of a "virtuous wife." She was respectful and dutiful toward her mother-in-law. Whenever the older woman fell ill, Chu Qin cared for her herself, never slacking off. She balanced kindness and authority with the concubines. Even when one came to provoke her, she never flinched and always handled things with grace. She was gentle and loving with her children. Legitimate or illegitimate, they all remembered her kindness, respected her, and held her in esteem. She was considerate and proper with her husband. She stood by him as he built his career, and looked up to him once he had achieved fame and success. She became a paragon in the capital. Whenever people spoke of virtuous wives, they mentioned her by name, praising her talent and virtue, and saying she was neither jealous nor competitive. Then she fell ill. At her bedside, her concubines were obedient, her children respectful, and her husband courteous. Everything seemed to be just as she had wanted, yet she felt as though something was missing. It took her a long time to realize that she didn't know what was missing, because she had never known what she wanted. She had simply lived the way other people wanted her to. She drifted off in this state of confusion. When she opened her eyes again, she had suddenly become much younger. She had returned to the first time she fell ill after getting married. This time, Chu Qin suddenly wanted to live differently. So... Her mother-in-law was harsh? No problem. They could live together if they got along, and if they couldn't, they could split the household. After all, she wasn't her husband's birth mother. A concubine causing trouble? No problem. Their status and finances were worlds apart. If Chu Qin chose to keep up appearances, that was her generosity. If she couldn't be bothered with the woman, there was nothing the concubine could do about it. Her children misbehaving? No problem... Actually, children didn't know any better, so they could still be gently set straight. As for her husband, Chu Qin thought it over carefully. He had a family fortune and countless concubines, so he didn't need her. And she had her own family background and dowry to rely on, so she didn't need to depend on him just to survive. So he could do whatever he liked, as long as he didn't interfere with her quiet life behind closed doors. In short, after living again, Chu Qin had just eight characters as her goal: Eat well, drink well, and live freely. But later, she realized that whenever she was "eating and drinking well," her husband would show up with his bowl, hoping to mooch a bite. Theme: Strive for your ideals throughout your life