The Empress Reigns Supreme

A gentle, straight-laced top scholar with a strong tolerance for everything x a cool, alluring, dark and calculating female emperor

Xiao Qingci disguises herself as a man and earns the top score in the imperial exams, but is demoted for an alleged crime and sent back to her hometown to serve as a county magistrate.

When she gets back, her older brother has just died, leaving behind a widowed sister-in-law in her care.

Her sister-in-law has skin as pale as ice and snow and a cool, self-possessed manner. Xiao Qingci originally plans to send her back to her family and give her the freedom to marry again.

But grief leaves her sister-in-law confused, and she mistakes Xiao Qingci for her brother.

With the two of them in such a compromising situation, as days turn into years, they let the mistake stand. Xiao Qingci tries to keep her distance, but in the end, they still wind up in bed together.

Xiao Qingci thinks that her sister-in-law has had a hard life, and that there's no reason the two of them can't spend the rest of their lives loving each other.

But one day, her sister-in-law suddenly leaves her.

It turns out she had only been using Xiao Qingci as a shield to escape trouble. Everything that came before was just amusement to her.

Her sister-in-law's real name is Lan Yu. She is the daughter of the female emperor and the Grand Princess of the realm. Condemned to death for treason, she faked her death and fled to Xiao Qingxuan's hometown.

By chance, she assumed Xiao Qingci's sister-in-law's identity and went into hiding with the Xiao family.

After the female emperor dies, Lan Yu returns to the capital and seizes the throne.

Xiao Qingci naturally stops dreaming of someone so far above her. Her life returns to normal, and when someone arranges a match for her, she goes.

Just as she's about to start a new romance, an imperial edict summons her back to the capital.

That night, the new female emperor, usually so cold and sinister, forces her onto the dragon bed. "Back then, Minister Xiao, you took liberties with me night after night. How is it that you don't dare now?"

*

Lan Yu has a suspicious female emperor for a mother, one who even tries to kill her for fear she'll seize the throne. Lan Yu fakes her death and flees to the Xiao family, where she meets the newly crowned top scholar, Xiao Qingci.

She's good-looking, treats Lan Yu well, and life in a common household is dull. Xiao Qingci could make for a pleasant diversion.

When Lan Yu returns to court, she thinks that reckless time together is over and that she won't care. Who could have guessed Xiao Qingci would think the same way?

That leaves her with all sorts of mixed feelings...

Now the whole realm belongs to her. Naturally, Xiao Qingci should belong to her too.

*I couldn't write the previous blurb anymore, so I've made a few small changes. Read or leave as you like. 2024.9.26

Theme: Fight hard to make life better, for the sake of justice in your heart and for love.