Is This Female Strategist for Real?

The story is complete. Thank you all for being with me. My column novel, My Wife Is Secretly Plotting a Rebellion, is currently updating, and my upcoming novel, I Got Involved with a Rich Playboy, is open for follows. Please add it to your collection!

Her name was Sui Ning, but it was a name she had stolen. And so she bore the consequences that came with it, drawn into the turbulent power struggles between the aristocratic clans of Jiankang.

A lowborn slave who had escaped the Song household became a female strategist at the side of the Second Young Master Lu of Wu Commandery overnight. He promised her a future of rising straight to the top, so she sold her humble self to the household of a strategist.

Later, when she schemed for her patron's profit from white salt, the person who stood against her turned out to be her former master.

Sui Ning had never imagined that a single bowl of dumplings would win the heart of the Song family's eldest young master, making him pine for her for years. Even after she found a new position elsewhere, he still clung to her and refused to let go.

Over and over, Sui Ning insisted, "I'm a proper strategist. I offer advice, not myself. What kind of strategist serves two masters?"

She turned down the olive branch Song Yu offered and said, "What does sincerity matter? Only self-interest lasts."

She had thought that the next time they met, she would be fighting him to the death on behalf of the Lu clan. Instead, she became a traitor to the Lu household and fled a thousand miles on her own.

When Song Yu saw the traitor the Lu clan had been hunting, he asked with a smile, "What? Couldn't you make it work with the Lu clan?"

Sui Ning said, "What if I told you I came all this way just to find you? Would you believe me?"

Song Yu said, "No."

He continued, "I wish you really did want something from me. Only self-interest lasts."

But what was it she wanted?

She saw a vast sea of suffering, a realm crumbling apart. In these troubled times, ordinary people were destined to become casualties of the struggle.

All the schemes that turned love and hatred into tools were simply her way of seeking a path to survival, both for herself and for the ordinary people of the world.

Note: The leads will be each other's only partners. There will be no male leads who aren't virgins in my novels. There will be a child, one they adopt.

Blurb for My Wife Is Secretly Plotting a Rebellion:

A solitary daughter of an aristocratic clan, driven to stake everything on one last gamble. A strategist of the troubled age, whose every move is calculated.

The emperor is unjust, the Yu dynasty is faltering, and heroes rise across the land, carving out territories and waging war against one another.

He is a young man who emerged from nowhere, marching east to suppress rebel factions, west to subdue vassal states, north to crush bandits, and south to pacify the barbarians. He clears the court of corrupt officials, becoming the pillar supporting a kingdom on the brink of collapse.

Jiang Yanjun is the daughter of one of the rebels they are hunting down. When she first meets Wen Shangjin, she comes burdened with a family vendetta.

She enters the imperial city alone, seeking revenge for her father and brothers. After her failed attempt to assassinate the emperor lands her in prison, her identity as the daughter of a rebel is exposed.

Jiang Yanjun asks, "You always knew who I was, didn't you?"

Wen Shangjin replies, "I did. The second young lady of the Fu clan of Yongzhou, and my betrothed, promised to me before we were even born."

After she is thrown into prison, someone threatens her there: "You have two choices now. One, marry into the Wen clan of Jianzhou and spend the rest of your life under their protection."

Without hesitation, Jiang Yanjun says, "The second. I choose the second option."

"That's a dead end."

She had never liked the fiance she had yet to meet. And she had watched Wen Shangjin help Qi Xun wipe out the entire Fu clan and drive her elder sister to her death. She had also seen with her own eyes how Wen Shangjin climbed over the bodies of thousands to put Qi Xun on the throne and take control of Juyong Palace.

As it happened, she wanted that throne for herself.

Jiang Yanjun once asked him, "If Qi Xun and I fight for the throne, whose side will you take?"

"After a thousand days spent together and three years sharing a bed, you never once told me you wanted that throne."

"If I had told you, would you have helped me ascend the Chengyang Hall, or would you have abandoned Qi Xun?"

Neither.

He said, "I would have killed you sooner."

Her elder sister had been right. These scions of aristocratic clans were cold-hearted to the core. If he learned the truth, he would surely kill her.

"But all I need is one moment of hesitation before you kill me."

"His hesitation will be my chance to bring him down."

In the end, it was this very daughter of a rebel who dragged the emperor of Juyong Palace from his throne with her own hands.

That day, she stepped over the emperor's corpse and walked out of Chengyang Hall with the imperial seal in her arms. Smiling at Wen Shangjin, she said, "Lord Wen, I won."

"The Qi clan has lost its claim to the realm. I invite all the heroes under heaven to compete for it."

Theme: Every step has its own ravines to cross. She has found her way out of the mire, carrying both the clear and the murky within her.

2: Lin Shuqing died. Floating in the air, she watched her parents suffer from illness, her siblings fall victim to others, and her family be destroyed, with none of them meeting a good end. She drifted alone through the world for many years, witnessing the changes of the times.

Then, suddenly, she was reborn, back in 1982, the turning point of her fate.

In this new life, Lin Shuqing would yield not an inch of what belonged to her.

Her hypocritical cousin stole her status-conscious fiance? Fine, she could have him!

In the end, the cousins' marriage fell apart, and the pair of scoundrels spent their lives entangled with each other, meeting a miserable end.

Her scheming grandparents treated her whole family like a cash cow. They were shameless and sinister, but now they would see who was the craftier one.

In the end, her grandparents lived out their twilight years in misery, both of them working sewing machines in prison!

Her selfish uncle took advantage of them and still acted innocent. This time, Lin Shuqing made sure he had no way to complain, and took back every last thing he had stolen!

In the end, her uncle's family lost all their good reputation, became targets of public scorn, and lived in constant turmoil!

Everyone who had ever bullied the Lin family got what they deserved.

In this life, the Lin family became the envy of everyone.

Her eldest sister was elegant and refined, married into a prominent family, and finally ended up with the man she loved.

Her second sister became a famous designer. Her beautiful clothes sold like hotcakes and were shipped all over the world.

Her eldest brother became a renowned scientist whose research led the international field and earned him the people's admiration.

Her younger brother was a smooth talker who became a top marketing expert, with his outstanding case studies drawing eager attention.

The neighborhood practically put Lin's parents on a pedestal, showering them with one compliment after another until they could barely stop grinning.

And Lin Shuqing?

By then, she was standing on the most expensive plot of land, ambitious and determined to turn it into Binjiang City's crown jewel.

Beside her stood a handsome man with striking features and a carefree smile in his eyes. He wouldn't stop going on and on.

"Hey, it's been so many years. Don't you think you owe me a wedding by now?"

"Are you planning to use me and then dump me? I'm calling the police!"

Lin Shuqing smacked him. "Use you and dump you? What the hell are you talking about? Our daughter's already in preschool, and now you decide to get all sentimental!"

Reading guide:

1. A sprawling ensemble cast, food, family life, and building a business to get rich.

2. A story about a whole family of doomed side characters fighting back and being reborn.

3. The male and female leads will have just one child, a daughter, and she will inherit the entire family fortune.

Theme: Swimming against the current.