This is a story about a narcissistic doppelganger and a mutual case of mistaken identity, about a ruler and subject, teacher and student, who turn against each other and become enemies.
(A woman disguised as a man: a sickly, iron-fisted crown prince and teacher (female) × a master of public opinion, a pure-hearted and shy, obsessive and extreme student who becomes a powerful minister)
P.S. The blurb is a little long. If you don't like that, you can skip straight to the summary at the end.
She transmigrates into the body of Liu Ye, daughter of Emperor Cheng of Han, Liu Ao. Her birth mother is Zhao Hede, and her adoptive mother is Zhao Feiyan.
As Liu Ao's only child, even though she's a girl, all it takes is for her two mothers to bat their eyelashes. She can dress as a boy and be named crown prince with ease.
Her birth father is a good-for-nothing and her birth mother is a control freak, but she never thinks inheriting the throne will be anything but certain.
Until she meets an idiot at the age of twelve.
The other person is dressed in coarse, patched clothes and stands among a group of spoiled young men, smiling foolishly as they mock him.
She kindly steps in to help him, then hears him say, "I am Wang Mang. Thank you, young master, for coming to my aid."
Wang... Wang Mang?! The gravedigger who overthrew the Han dynasty?!
Guards! Drag him out and execute him!
The first time Wang Mang visits the imperial palace, he encounters a palace maid from the Eastern Palace.
She has just gotten her first period and is curled up in a patch of grass, writhing in pain.
As a gentleman, he must observe the proper distance between men and women, but he cannot leave someone in distress.
So he covers his own face with his outer robe, and lets her carry him back to the Eastern Palace.
Curled up in his arms, the girl's skin below her nose is as pale as snow. Her flowerlike lips have lost all color, and a black mole shows between her collarbones.
Wang Mang turns his eyes away, his cheeks slowly turning red.
S-She's so beautiful...
Later, he enters government service and hits it off with the crown prince at first sight.
The prince is eight years younger than him, but his character and vision win Wang Mang's admiration.
He becomes the prince's student, learning how to govern and working with him to build a world of great harmony.
He is willing to be the prince's sharpest blade and most useful pawn, cutting away every corrupt official and cancerous growth.
And the prince promises that once Wang Mang has risen to a high position and established his career, he will arrange a marriage for him.
But later, the crown prince ascends the throne and becomes emperor, only to collude with treacherous ministers and abandon their dream of a world of great harmony.
The person Wang Mang loves and yearns for is also poisoned to death by the emperor, meeting a tragic end because of him.
Ha... It doesn't matter.
So what if he's the new emperor? So what if he was my teacher? He's just a sickly man, nothing to fear.
Wang Mang gradually strips the new emperor of power and takes control of the court. He will personally reclaim the world of great harmony the emperor owes him.
Everyone at court knows he is the crown prince's most prized pupil and sharpest talon.
So when the crown prince succeeds to the throne and Wang Mang usurps his power, not one official realizes it.
Not until he forges an imperial edict, rules with an iron fist, and leaves officials terrified, the land devastated, corpses strewn across the fields, and the people starving.
When he kneels beside the new emperor's bed, he catches sight of the black mole between the emperor's collarbones. His whole body trembles, and at last he understands.
Your Majesty... You never changed.
I... I was wrong.
The teacher he followed, the enlightened ruler he served, the new emperor he plotted against and stripped of power, the enemy he hated with all his heart, and the beloved he longed for night and day had always been one and the same person.
[Content note]
I don't think there's anything that needs a content warning. They are each other's only partner, one-on-one romance. He's eight years older than her, though their dynamic feels more like the younger one is the pursuer. The romance also starts earlier than in An Lushan. That story was limited by the female lead's age, while this one has a normal romantic progression.
Theme: The historical Wang Mang is a textbook example of how an idealist can gradually descend into authoritarianism and madness
