[Spoilers + Ming Dynasty + Infrastructure Building + Favored Concubine]
The night before she is to marry her childhood sweetheart, Deng Yueling has a dream.
In the dream, she is spoiled and willful, jealous and presumptuous, and the emperor sentences her to death with a single decree.
Deng Yueling wakes in a cold sweat and lays out a survival plan:
First, make absolutely sure her sweetheart doesn't let a favored concubine take precedence over his wife, and don't incur the emperor's displeasure.
Second, never do anything that harms the common people. Love them as if they were her own children.
Third, firmly support the Crown Prince's rightful claim to the throne and never entertain any delusions of her own.
She trembles her way through life until her eldest son is born, then suddenly realizes:
This isn't a survival guide to Xi'an Prefecture. It's a ladder straight to wealth and glory.
[Reading notes]
1. The female lead is a favored concubine, but the leads are devoted to each other in body and soul.
2. Some details differ from the historical record, and some are invented.
3. The female lead was reborn in the womb and learned her fate before marriage.
Theme: While avoiding tragedy, she also develops the northwest and brings prosperity to its people
