Empress Dowager Lu's Rebirth Strategy [Great Qin]

Lü Zhi died to the cheers of all under heaven.

Unfortunately, she wasn't quite dead.

As she wandered by the Yellow Springs, waiting to die,

the First Emperor took pity on her and picked her up.

She became the most useless imperial spirit in the underworld.

Lü Zhi cut her losses and started over.

When she opened her eyes, the feudal lords were at war. The land was once again in chaos.

Just as she was getting ready to make a fresh start,

she discovered that the era she'd landed in was the ninth year of King Zheng of Qin.

That was the year Lao Ai staged his coup.

That was the year the First Emperor struggled to take power.

The Qin had not yet unified the realm, let alone collapsed.

The Chu-Han contention was still a hundred thousand miles away.

Lü Zhi: “...”

She chose to mock the First Emperor.

Ying Zheng opened the door, and she got into the carriage.

Ying Zheng raised his cup, and she drank first.

Ying Zheng began to speak, and she started chatting over him.

Ying Zheng: “...”

Ying Zheng finally couldn't take it anymore and told her to get lost.

So Lü Zhi packed up her luggage again

and left.

She went off to:

poison Yan Shi and devise a plan for Xingyang,

sow discord among the states and maneuver between them,

suppress the Shu rebellion and help conquer Zhao,

plot in the temple and strike at the heart, splitting Zhao from within,

skillfully govern Daliang and settle the people's hearts,

take command at Yingdu and secure victory in Jingchu,

bring the hundred schools together and make the realm flourish.

People called her deceitful and sinister, a manipulator of hearts, vicious to the core.

They were right.

The spirit who had once desperately wished for death now stood firmly on Qin's fertile soil

and became one of the Qin people.

But in this life, she would no longer be a rebel against Qin.

She became the mother of Qin.

Through hardship and glory, surrounded by the people of Qin, she stood beside Ying Zheng, sharing the bright moon with him.

Through peace and prosperity, amid the cries of children, she lay ill in bed, earnestly hoping Qin would endure.

For thousands upon thousands of generations,

may it last forever.

*

Ying Zheng picked up a woman at the Yellow Springs.

She was the empress of Han and a rebel against Qin.

No wonder she was a rebel.

She was annoying enough.

Yet he carried her on his back, walking through lush weeds and along the unending Yellow Springs,

silent and at peace.

Until she turned away and entered the cycle of reincarnation again, refusing to look back.

Ying Zheng carefully cradled the spirit he had spent a century finding,

and returned to the world of the living.

He walked through betrayal, assassination, curses, hatred, and fear.

Alone, unable to let go,

until he finally stood before Lü Zhi.

The realm was unified, the seas calm and the rivers clear, and Qin enjoyed an age of peace and prosperity.

Lü Zhi was hidden beneath the dazzling harvest.

Golden wheat stretched like an endless sea, swaying without end.

She was callous and ungrateful, willful and wanton.

She dared to seek an end, content with what she had.

Lü Zhi was burdened by too many obsessions and too much karma. She was a spirit beyond deliverance.

Again and again, there was only one end awaiting her: death.

Ying Zheng fell into the Yellow Springs, into the darkness.

Arrogant and stubborn, mad and cruel,

he shattered every perfect ending she had imagined for herself.

He said, “Burn every last bit of the harvest in this palace, everything before the empress's eyes!”

He said, “I want to see how you can find peace, how you can let go, how you can rest.”

The flames erupted, and the harvest was consumed.

The immortals said that Lü Zhi was a spirit beyond salvation.

Their karma was a mistake from beginning to end.

But he was domineering and tyrannical, arrogant and obstinate, doing as he pleased and refusing to give up.

Again and again, he dragged that wretched Lü Zhi back

and took her to his side,

to be his wife, to be the mother of Qin,

to be remembered in history, and to see Qin endure for thousands of generations.

“What mistake in karma?”

The fire raged on, the sun refused to set, and his obsession would not fade.

He said through gritted teeth:

“If this is a mistake,”

“then I will keep making it.”

[Reader advisory]

1. Qin Shi Huang x Empress Lü. A wild pairing, the kind that has you bowing to the ancestors.

2. Qin and Han history collide. I've thrown logic out the window, so just enjoy it. I mainly want to write about a married couple growing close and the bond between a ruler and his empress.

3. Reborn + transmigrate, with some supernatural elements. This isn't historical fiction, but a parallel-world story inspired by history.

Theme: Yin cannot exist without yang, nor yang without yin