Alongside the Phoenix's Power

* Li Zhao has no memories from before the age of six. She once thought she was a village girl, only to discover later that she wasn't. She once thought she was the Crown Princess, only to discover later that perhaps she wasn't that either. But it didn't matter. Truth and lies, reality and illusion: now that Li Zhao had reached the imperial throne, she would never again put her life in someone else's hands. “Being an emperor is hard? It's nothing special.” After securing her place at the very top, Li Zhao said this. * From the day he was born, Pei Shaoyan was branded inauspicious. His mother suffered a difficult labor on the day he was born. On his third birthday, his maternal uncle died in battle on the northern frontier. On his tenth birthday, the emperor ordered his mother's clan, the Zhangsun family, to be arrested and their home confiscated. Inauspicious? Pei Shaoyan had never believed it. He just hadn't expected there to be another stubborn soul in this world who refused to believe in fate, just like him. “Being an empress is hard? It's nothing special.” Pei Shaoyan smiled as he held her delicate hand.