A Female Strategist’s Journey to Help the Emperor Rule

[She plays dumb while hiding her claws, with meticulous attention to detail and a slow-burn romance. The heroine only cares about power; the hero only cares about her!]

Also known as: The Making of a Female Chancellor; The Regent Is a Hopeless Romantic

In her previous life, she was a brilliant but impoverished scholar. At twenty-nine, she died of depression after failing to find a path into government service.

When she woke again, she had unexpectedly been reborn as a wealthy, powerful, but useless young lady.

This time, she decided to use her new identity to become a female strategist who would help a wise ruler!

With the talent from her previous life and the power and status of this one, Ji Zhijie should have been able to take the world by storm.

But for no apparent reason, she caught the attention of Li Rong, the cold-hearted and ruthless Regent who wielded immense power. He sent guards to fetch her every day so she could study by his side.

To keep Li Rong from discovering that she meant to take his power, she had to maintain the appearance of a harmless little rabbit.

In secret, she recruited talent, opened businesses, and gathered military power, all so she could one day topple him from his throne and install the crown prince.

*

One day, Li Rong drew her into his arms. "Would you be my regent's consort?"

Ji Zhijie fled in alarm, thinking, Li Rong is despicable! He's actually trying to use his good looks to seduce me!

Fortunately, Ji Zhijie remained true to her principles, focusing wholeheartedly on overthrowing Li Rong's regime.

On the day of the palace coup, the crown prince's faction and the regent's faction were about to fight to the death.

Ji Zhijie had only a fifty percent chance of success. She decided to stake her life to make up the other fifty percent.

Swords flashed like shooting stars, hot blood splattered, and the imperial city was shrouded in a gloom that seemed to last both day and night.

Ji Zhijie crossed a sea of blades alone and pushed open the doors to the Hall of Heavenly Mandate to find Li Rong. This was now a contest between the two of them alone.

In Ji Zhijie's memory, Li Rong always wore pale, simple robes. Today, however, he was clad in a black robe embroidered with a hornless dragon, a gold crown on his head and a jade belt at his waist.

His air of power could not conceal the tenderness in his eyes.

"What are you doing here? It's too dangerous. Come with me to the secret passage."

"Regent, I came to kill you!"

With that, a sharp dagger plunged straight into Li Rong's chest.

Ji Zhijie spoke in a trembling voice to Li Rong, lifeless at her feet. "You lost!"

She felt something cold on her face. Thinking it was sweat, she reached up and touched a wet tear.

Only then did she realize that longing had sunk deep into her bones, and that suddenly, the one she had known was gone.

*

The crown prince ascended the throne, and Ji Zhijie was appointed chancellor.

One day, after court had ended, her maid came to deliver a message:

"Chancellor Ji, hurry back to the manor. That man is refusing to take his medicine. He says he won't drink it until you come home."

From then on, people around the capital said that the Regent, once master of life and death, had been hidden away in the Chancellor's residence...

Theme: Women can pursue their ambitions just as men do.