Serving as an official under the Hongwu Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang, who started from nothing, comes with a high risk of losing your head.
Being a woman in the early Ming dynasty is hard, whether you are a princess, a palace maid, or a farmer.
Liu Miaoyin is a palace official in the final years of Hongwu's reign.
Everyone would agree: high risk, low pay, and a difficult situation.
Liu Miaoyin was an accomplished young woman from the modern age. She transmigrated to the Ming dynasty after dying from overwork.
Her parents are both dead, she owes a hundred taels, and her younger brother is a burden she has to support.
After rolling up her sleeves and taking stock of her situation, Liu Miaoyin decides to work with the imperial grandson.
The imperial grandson's mother has fallen out of favor with the emperor, so he plays the part of a spoiled wastrel every day.
Fortunately, even a starving camel is bigger than a horse. She pays off her debts and, at the imperial grandson's recommendation, enters the palace.
Officially, she is a palace lady-in-waiting. In reality, she is the imperial grandson's strategist.
She makes it through the old emperor's death, and then the Prince of Yan launches his uprising from Beiping.
From then on, the world is turned upside down, and Liu Miaoyin gets to call the shots.
Theme: There has never been a female chief secretary in the palace, so she will make herself the first.
