The Big Shot Insists I Rise to the Top

When Zhou Zhao was twelve, the chancellor put her on the throne. She was forced to study every day.

The empress dowager said the chancellor was a wicked woman who would bring ruin to the country, a woman who usurped a man's place, and would surely murder the emperor and seize the throne.

Zhou Zhao thought: The chancellor is proud and aloof, as ethereal as an immortal. She would never do such a thing.

But the empress dowager still enfeoffed the chancellor in a remote border region.

Then the court fell into disarray and the country into turmoil. Zhou Zhao lived in fear every day, afraid she wouldn't survive.

Three years later, the chancellor used "purging the emperor's corrupt advisers" as an excuse to lead an army into the capital.

The nobles panicked, but Zhou Zhao felt at ease: So be it if I die. At least I won't have to worry anymore.

When Zhou Zhao saw the chancellor again, she smiled calmly. "Why did you make me study back then, Chancellor? You should have let me enjoy myself for a few more days."

The chancellor approached step by step, then slowly knelt before her. "Your Majesty was the ruler then, and you will remain the ruler now."

After that, she stayed by Zhou Zhao's side every day, teaching her from morning to night, trying to instruct her in state affairs and even returning command of the army to her.

Zhou Zhao: ? Could she really want me to become a good emperor with real power? This has to be a trick!

One day, after drinking too much, Zhou Zhao said, "I can be a good emperor, as long as the chancellor becomes my empress."

The chancellor: "Agreed."

On their wedding night, Zhou Zhao stared at the chancellor in her wedding gown, still unable to process it: Is it really possible to get both the empire and the beauty?

(I want to write a story on a grand scale, with more than just romance: it will also be about the realm and its people. But I don't know when I'll have time to write it, so I'm putting the blurb here for now. Please add it to your to-read list.)

Theme: To secure a livelihood for the people and peace for generations to come.