Is This Normal Between a Ruler and His Subject?

[A female-disguised, perpetually sleepy, easygoing new emperor x a cold, fatherly minister who suffers from insomnia]

[Jiang Mingyue x Xie Heng]

College student Jiang Mingyue transmigrates during an eight-in-the-morning class, into the body of a new emperor whose power has been entirely usurped by a minister.

Jiang Mingyue: Isn't this just being a puppet? Being a puppet sounds great! I won't have to do anything. I'll eat when I want and sleep when I want. This is my ideal life!

But the next day, while it was still dark, a cool voice like frost called her awake. "Your Majesty, it's time to get up and attend morning court."

Wrapped in her dragon-patterned quilt, Jiang Mingyue rolled around and grumbled, refusing to get up. Then a cool, strong hand grabbed the back of her neck like she was a chick and lifted her straight out of bed.

Jiang Mingyue opened her eyes, and her whole world fell apart.

The person who had woken her wore a crimson robe and sash, his bearing noble and imposing. It was none other than Xie Heng, the most powerful minister at court.

Xie Heng was extremely controlling.

He personally washed Jiang Mingyue's face, combed her hair, and corrected her posture.

He also packed her daily schedule to the brim.

From attending court at four in the morning, to midday lectures on the classics, to one-on-one tutoring late at night, every minute was accounted for, down to the smallest detail.

What's more, her bedchamber was never allowed to be locked. He read every memorial she wrote, and personally arranged every friend she made.

No one at court questioned Xie Heng's authority, because they were convinced he would turn the lazy new emperor into a diligent ruler whose name would go down in history.

The officials: Your Majesty, you got this!

But Jiang Mingyue began to despair.

What happened to being a puppet? What happened to having all my power taken away?

Having to get up early for eight o'clock classes in my previous life was exhausting enough. Why do I still have to get up at four in the morning in this life?

Damn Xie Heng! What gives him the right to control me so strictly?

One night, Xie Heng was tutoring Jiang Mingyue in the imperial study as usual. The lesson was on the Han Feizi.

Xie Heng: "The art of statecraft is kept in one's breast, used to judge the many affairs and secretly control the ministers..."

Jiang Mingyue: I don't understand. I want to kiss him.

Perhaps she was sleepy and not thinking straight. She really did kiss Xie Heng, then threatened him: "I want to sleep in every day for an extra hour. If you don't approve, I'll kiss you. I'll kiss you hard, until you drop!"

It was probably the first time in his life he'd heard such brazen words. Jiang Mingyue saw the cool, self-disciplined man's ears turn faintly red, as if they might drip blood.

Xie Heng left with a grim face.

The next day, every official received an edict: court would begin an hour later from then on.

Jiang Mingyue got to sleep in as she wished.

But the good times didn't last. Later, she noticed Xie Heng looking at her with an increasingly dark, heated gaze, and often spending the night in her bedchamber...

Tormented by insomnia, Xie Heng had not slept well in many years.

As the sole chancellor with power reaching to the heavens, he had been ordered by the late emperor to support Crown Prince Jiang Mingyue and help her ascend the throne.

In his eyes, Jiang Mingyue was a soft, dim-witted lump of wood, useless at everything and first in slacking off.

She had even written this on a memorial: "I really want to be a dog. Wherever I lie down becomes my bed."

Someone with no ambition at all was like a fat crab stripped of its claws, destined to be eaten up by enemies.

To train the new emperor, Xie Heng slept only one hour a day and drank focus tea like water.

His colleagues feared he would drop dead in the Golden Throne Hall. Out of concern, they suggested he find a woman to sleep with.

Xie Heng never took their advice, until one night at a banquet, a drunk Jiang Mingyue wrapped her arms around him and lay down with him on the imperial bed.

Breathing in the new emperor's faint, warm scent of wine and feeling her soft body beneath the imperial robes, Xie Jin unexpectedly slept soundly for the first time in ages, all the way until morning.

His colleagues' advice really had worked, but they had one thing wrong.

It didn't have to be a woman. He could sleep with a man, too.

From that night on, Xie Heng often snuck in a nap under the pretext of tutoring her.

Jiang Mingyue used to dread attending court most of all. Now, what she dreaded most was leaving court.

Because Xie Heng would certainly be waiting for her in her bedchamber.

He would calmly pat the imperial bed and say, "Your Majesty, come up."

...Is this sort of thing between a ruler and her minister normal?

Theme: Love can heal anything