Can a Concubine's Daughter Claim the Throne Too?

[Delicate, scheming concubine-born younger sister vs. brooding, obsessive legitimate elder brother]

Coercive pursuit | Fallen from the heights | Coming-of-age | Powerful minister

Su Qingli is a "concubine-born daughter" scraping by in the inner quarters of the Shen household.

Her position is awkward. As long as she stays alive, she doesn't care how she does it.

She opens her eyes in a crowded servants' dormitory in a remote courtyard, only to find herself in the Prime Minister's residence as a concubine, and not just anyone's: she's the concubine of the Shen family's legitimate eldest son!

Qingli is so nervous she's breaking out in a cold sweat. Her legitimate elder brother and she... are sharing a bed now? Hasn't the matriarch beaten her to death?

You're saying that my legitimate eldest brother, who topped the imperial exams and is a paragon of grace, has become the Chief Minister,

and he's not only a treacherous villain, but has also forcibly taken her into his household!

The sovereign fears him, the common people dread him, and the Shen family keeps its doors shut, afraid to provoke him.

And she isn't even a Shen. She's an orphan lodging with an official's family.

When she opens her eyes again, her brother, who had once taken her by force, has become the gentle, refined man she admires.

Qingli: My elder brother is upright and kind. How could he do something so ungentlemanly...

In the blink of an eye, she transmigrates again, five years into the future. Qingli is fleeing with her lover, and her brother's blade is about to fall on her lover's head.

Is this ever going to end?

"I said I don't remember. Do you believe me?"

Shen Shangxu worked hard at his studies, striving to bring honor to his family and speak up for the people. That was all he ever wanted in life.

But later, everyone turned against him.

Even the beloved woman he had devoted himself to raising left him. Shen Shangxu sneered. "If Heaven made me, it had better not think it can betray me."

One day, the woman he cherished, who had been desperate to escape him, called out to him in a trembling voice.

"E-Elder Brother."

It seemed she no longer remembered the lover who had been half-dead in prison.

Shen Shangxu's lips curled up. The darkness in his eyes gradually gave way to a glimmer of light.

One day, Qingli was slacking off on a lounge chair, dreaming of Shen Shangxu's love washing over her like a tide.

She murmured, "Shen Shangxu, stop kissing me, mmph!"

When she opened her eyes, she saw Shen Shangxu from five years earlier, handsome and radiant, his cheeks lightly flushed.

His fingers curled as he stared at her in a daze.

"Li'er, what... what were you dreaming about just now?"

Qingli: "…"

After Qingli returned to her parents, everyone said she was delicate and weak, easy to bully.

Yet she ordered a young nobleman who had galloped through the streets to be stripped, hung upside down in the marketplace, and whipped as punishment.

Then she took a knife and cut off the head of a sharp-tongued eunuch.

Her mother scolded her for being cold-blooded and ruthless.

Qingli lifted her chin defiantly. "If someone runs into my sword, how can you blame me?"

Shen Shangxu smiled, his gaze dark. He bent respectfully toward the people seated on the dais. "I will give them an explanation."

Does that mean remembering their names? Then I'd better not.

The capital was in an uproar, and people went out of their way to avoid her.

1. Happy ending, both leads' first time, both transmigrate, parallel storylines, two timelines and two different stories that eventually connect.

2. They are not blood-related and were never raised together. They have never had a familial relationship, and the female lead is registered as a resident elsewhere.

3. The second male lead transmigrates from the present to the past.

4. A top-tier coming-of-age story: the male lead personally raises the ambitious woman he falls for.

Theme: Even when the world changes, don't give up on yourself.