Spring Colors on the Jade Steps

[Guide to Taming Men: The Flirtatious Beauty's Handbook]

[How My Nemesis Keeps Falling for Me]

After her family is raided when she is four, Du Zunsheng is sold as a servant to Jiayue House. She endures humiliation for years, still hoping she'll one day rise to power and live a good life.

Then one day, Duke Shen and his wife call her their daughter through tears. She thinks her good days have finally arrived.

But before she can even warm her seat at the bedside, she's sent into the imperial palace.

Zunsheng: What kind of damn good life is this? They've brought me in to serve the old emperor in place of their real eldest daughter!

If the emperor dies without an heir or favor, the women of the palace are sent to the imperial monastery, where they spend the rest of their lives by the Buddha's side.

The old emperor is fifty-four this year, and Zunsheng has yet to see his face.

So she sets her sights on Xiang Ling, the young powerful minister beside the imperial steps, who commands the Central Sixteen Guards and the six hundred prefectures of the realm.

*

Everyone calls Zunsheng a bewitching consort who brings ruin to the country. With her seductive looks, she wastes no time in beguiling the emperor into making her empress. After his death, she even tempts the crown prince, making him defy the entire court and break the moral order to swear he will make the empress dowager his new empress.

A veteran minister of three reigns sees the crown prince's folly and shouts in court: "Purge the evil at the emperor's side! Kill the demon consort!"

Zunsheng: This is the end of the world.

The new dynasty is corrupt, and the people suffer.

The ministers rally behind Xiang Ling, the young military governor of three provinces, and storm the capital, their advance unstoppable.

Amid the cheering, the ministers can only watch as the new emperor once again offers the throne of empress to the former demon consort.

Late at night by Taiye Lake, Xiang Ling watches the emperor's carriage return to the palace. On the water, a light boat glides through swaying lotus leaves, carrying a palace woman in white who parts the moonlight as she approaches.

At the birthday banquet, Xiang Ling lifts the covers in a side room and finds the young lady from Duke Shen's estate, whom he had just hidden, sprawled lazily across his lap.

"Your Majesty, what is it you want?"

The young woman's eyes are alluring, her red lips parting. "Lord Xiang, I want to be empress."

*She only wants to be empress. She never said whose empress she had to be.

[Reading Guide]

1) Happy ending, one-on-one romance, both leads have only each other.

2) The female lead has no romantic relationship with the old emperor.

3) Set in a fictional world.

Theme: Better to live badly than die well