The Seized Wife of a Minister Is Reborn

Jiang Wan was beautiful and soft, demure and virtuous above all else, but her life was rather miserable.

Her father didn't care for her, her stepmother didn't love her, and even the marriage arranged for her by her birth mother was taken over by her half-sister. Her stepmother then casually betrothed her to an obscure scholar.

Fortunately, although her husband was poor, he was gentle and considerate. In the second year of their marriage, he passed the highest imperial examination. She went from being the wife of a scholar whom her sisters looked down on to the wife of the top-ranked candidate.

Jiang Wan thought her happy days had finally arrived.

Until one day, the husband who had once sworn eternal love to her clutched her skirt and shed two lines of tears. "Wan Niang, I've wronged you."

That very night, Jiang Wan was sent into the emperor's bedchamber. After enduring day after day of torment, her heart turned to ash, and she died young.

When Jiang Wan opened her eyes again, she had returned to the night she entered the palace.

She abandoned the resistance and hysterics of her previous life. Instead, she schemed carefully, taking one step at a time, and trampled underfoot those who had bullied her. With the support of Grand Tutor Xu Yuan, she eradicated treacherous officials and assisted the crown prince, becoming a virtuous empress praised by all and a wise empress dowager.

In the eighteenth year after her entry into the palace, at Cining Palace.

The empress dowager Jiang Wan, now with her apricot-shaped eyes half-closed and her lovely face glowing, gently nudged the person behind her with her smooth, soft elbow. "What do you think about the emperor taking control of the government?"

The still young and robust Grand Tutor had no desire to discuss politics at that moment. His voice remained as steady and measured as ever. "A-Wan, focus."

Reader's guide: Palace intrigue. The heroine is not a virgin, but the hero is.

Theme: Be self-reliant and keep an optimistic outlook