What a Shock! The Wealthy Family's Stepmother Was the Champion of the Last Palace Intrigue Contest

Yu Wan waded through rivers of blood, killed the emperor and her husband, and rose from a calamity-bringing temptress in the eyes of the world to the most revered empress dowager of the Great Yong dynasty. After three years of ruling from behind the curtain, she died of overwork.

When she opened her eyes again, she had become a wealthy family's stepmother, having married the frail eldest young master of the He family after paying her way through a finishing school for socialites.

Her husband died less than seven days after their wedding, leaving her with three unruly stepsons, a fake heiress stepdaughter, and a pitiful real heiress who had just returned from the border.

The three rebellious stepsons only wanted to spoil the fake heiress, and even planned to bundle Yu Wan and the pitiful real heiress out of the house.

After the fake heiress staged another attack on herself, the three stepsons exploded.

"Song Tang, your adoptive father was a martyr, so why are you so vicious and despicable? You don't deserve to stay in the He family."

"Yu Wan, you're just a fake socialite looking to marry rich. You led Song Tang astray, and you don't deserve to stay in the He family either."

Yu Wan: "Fine. Then let's all stop pretending to be decent people."

She tears into the fake heiress and brutally tames her rebellious stepsons until they obey like puppies. Before she knows it, she's also turned the real heiress from a nobody into a true society lady.

After being thoroughly trounced, the stepsons head to the temple known for granting the most effective love blessings, all to pray for a peach-blossom charm for Yu Wan. "We just want some god, any god, to find our vicious stepmother another husband. We really can't take any more."

That very night, Yu Wan is cornered in her bedroom by Second Young Master He.

They say He Huaizhou is an up-and-coming magnate in the capital's elite circles, an aloof, noble man who intimidates anyone who gets close.

Yu Wan looks at the man kneeling on one knee as he kisses the top of her foot. "Second Young Master He, what happened to being an untouchable flower who keeps his distance from women?"