Seizing the Phoenix Throne, Dismissing the Adopted Son: The Noble Consort Rises to the Top

In her past life, Gu Youning lost her son and the emperor's favor. With a heart like still water, she treated only her adopted son as her own. She never expected that once he ascended the throne, he would lose all humanity and smile as he forced her to drink poisoned wine with his beloved consort in his arms.

Reborn, Gu Youning no longer believed the emperor's empty promises that he could protect her. She refused to become an invisible nobody in the harem as she had in her past life, with mother and son enduring the palace servants' neglect and bullying. She was determined to win the emperor's favor, protect her own son, and claim the phoenix throne.

The empress was a hypocrite, so Gu Youning would expose her true face step by step. The noble consort was vicious, so Gu Youning would make her suffer the consequences of her own actions.

But the emperor, so cold, distant, and proud in her past life, held her close, his eyes full of anguished, bewildered hope. “Xiao Ning'er, could you love me once more?”

And her adopted son, reborn too, knelt at her feet with a look of adoration and bitter remorse. “Mother Empress, your son was wrong.”