I Took My Brother's Place at Court as a Treacherous Minister, but Somehow Extended Our Dying Kingdom's Life?

[Woman Disguised as a Man + Female-Orientated Court Intrigue + Shameless Schemes + Dark Humor + Courtroom Ensemble + Unhinged Treacherous Minister × Cold, Composed Minister]

The Great Liang dynasty was on the verge of collapse.

The treasury was so empty a mouse could run through it, years of Little Ice Age disasters had taken their toll, the Northern Di pressed at the borders, and refugees filled the roads. Yet the court officials still talked grandly about benevolence and righteousness.

At the imperial examination, Xie Zhao said, “Your Majesty, I recommend selling all the disaster victims.”

The whole court was thrown into an uproar!

The upright officials called her a treacherous demon. The great clans called her shameless and immoral. Censor Qi was so enraged he nearly launched a remonstration unto death on the spot.

But when refugees rioted, she stabilized the situation with a work-point system. When grain merchants hoarded supplies, she set a trap and forced them to surrender their grain. When a plague surrounded the city, she used plague corpses to set up a formation and scare the enemy troops away…

When the court ran out of money, she found a way to make it!

When the great clans refused to submit, she confiscated their estates.

Others saved the country through loyalty and righteousness. Xie Zhao saved it with ruthless schemes.

All she wanted was to stay alive, make money, and get a little revenge. Somehow, step by step, she became the most notorious treacherous minister in all of Great Liang.

And its last hope of survival.

When Pei Yan first met Xie Zhao, he thought she was a heretic who spouted nothing but twisted logic.

Then he realized that although she never said a word of sage wisdom, everything she did saved lives.

On a snowy night, Pei Yan asked her, “Xie Zhao, what is it you really want?”

Wrapped in a tattered fox-fur coat, she looked down at her abacus and continued counting without looking up. “To live. And, while I’m at it, to make everyone who wants me dead die first.”

Later, as snow swept through the city, thousands cursed her as a treacherous minister.

Only Pei Yan stood behind her and said softly, “Xie Zhao, if this world has no place for you, then I’ll go mad right alongside you!”