Zhao Mingzhao transmigrates into the body of a child in ancient times, destined to be a secondary consort to the Crown Prince. It’s a hellish start from the get-go: barbarian invasions force the Son of Heaven to flee south. Luoyang burns, Chang’an is reduced to ashes. A thousand li of fertile fields turn into a domain of ghosts, and half the country is soaked in blood. The land where “Jade Tree” was once sung is now a den of jackals and wolves. New graves pile upon old graves, all filled with people displaced by chaos.
“Bright and illustrious is Zhou, its order is in place.” Her name, Mingzhao, sounds very much like a Crown Prince when read forward, and like the Son of Heaven when read backward. To be a Crown Prince’s consort, and a secondary one at that? She thinks not. But she can kill the Crown Prince.
When the imperial court fled south, she was just an eight-year-old child. Remembering old ties and pitying her for being young and helpless, the ministers and nobles wanted to take her with them. Looking at the elegantly dressed officials before her, she rejected this path to survival, and with it, her predetermined fate. “Mingzhao would rather sink with the divine land than follow the flock of geese south.”
She and the Zhao family traveled north, against the tide.
Fortunately, her father had the script of a Succubus. He recaptured Huguan, raised a banner of righteousness in the north, and began her legendary life of watering her horses at the Yellow River and contending for the Central Plains.
[Content Warning: The female lead is an ambitious and naturally fickle person. She has numerous admirers. The male lead is not the one she loves most, but merely the optimal choice after weighing her options. The female lead doesn’t intend to be fickle; she just has a few too many people in her heart. 1vN, all male leads are chaste.]
