You Were Supposed to Be a Wise Empress, So Why Are You Pretending to Be a Goddess and Bewitching the Tyrant?

System: Your mission is to help the young emperor become a wise and virtuous ruler. Ming Yuan: Okay, first I’ll make him think I’m a god. System: ??? From the start, she was the daughter of a low-ranking sixth-rank official, not even important enough to get past the gates of a flower-viewing banquet. While everyone else dutifully climbed the ranks through the official system, Ming Yuan turned to the role of a bewitching consort, complete with special effects, celestial mist, cranes, and a divine carriage. She staged a “goddess descending to the mortal world” in the emperor’s dreams. The emperor took the bait. He treated their three-day pact and the three questions from the gods as holy writ. The entire court thought he was having another one of his immortality obsessions, but only Ming Yuan knew the truth: he was genuinely waiting for the goddess to come find him. Meanwhile, that very goddess was using an AI face-swap feature to keep popping up at his side, now as a tea-serving palace maid, now as a young eunuch sweeping the floors. System: How is this being a virtuous empress? You’re running a con! Ming Yuan: Just tell me, did I get into the palace or not? System: … Ming Yuan: Just tell me, did his affection go up or not? System: It... it did. Ming Yuan: Then there you have it. Lesson one after entering the palace: Make the emperor believe you descended from heaven to save him.