The Nine Palaces Pearl

Also known as "When They Summoned Me to the Palace, They Didn't Say I Could Become Emperor!" and "Can You Become Emperor After Becoming Empress?"

Xie Suining was chosen to be the Crown Prince's Consort when she was young.

At sixteen, she entered the palace to pay her respects and happened to catch sight of a flash of imperial yellow. The next day, an imperial decree was issued, summoning her to the palace... to become the emperor's concubine.

Xie Suining: "...I suppose I could?"

A crown princess has to wait for the emperor to die, and might not even become empress then. Now she'd been directly hired by the emperor. If she worked hard, perhaps she could become the empress and rule the realm.

And so the palace welcomed its new favorite, Noble Consort Xie, like the moon in the emperor's sleeve and a jewel in his crown.

A year later, she wore the phoenix crown.

With the empress's golden seal and investiture in her hands, everyone around her seemed to have honey on their tongues, each one saying sweeter things than the last.

"I pledge myself to Your Majesty. Even if I must die nine times, I will have no regrets."

"To have found one kindred spirit in my lifetime is enough."

"You know, for someone like His Majesty to share power with you means he loves you dearly."

--But so what?

Xie Suining was not satisfied, and she did not dare be satisfied.

She made up her mind.

Until she could command her own fate, she would never stop moving forward. She would climb to the highest heavens and turn the world upside down.

--

As a child, Shen Zhuo was told he would become "the white jade pillar that supports the heavens and the purple-gold beam that spans the seas" of Great Zhao. He made it his life's mission to be a loyal and capable minister.

The first time he saw Xie Suining, he had a premonition that sooner or later, this woman would bring down the dynasty.

What would she do?

Would she be a seductive favorite who bewitched the people, or a dowager empress who seized power and stirred up chaos?

In silence, Shen Zhuo watched coldly and guarded against her in every way. Yet his premonition came true in the most unbelievable manner.

For he became her bedfellow, her subject beneath her skirts.

He became the man who knelt beneath the nine-tiered crown of the empress, stood at the head of the assembled officials, and led them in shouting, "Long live the empress!"

--

1. An empress story. The heroine has many love interests, not just the two mentioned in the blurb. She is a native of the historical setting, not someone who transmigrated.

2. It has tragic, obsessive love, court intrigue with a mishmash of government systems, and nation-building. It's got a bit of everything.

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