Li Zhi (FL) was an orphan who was raised to adulthood by her aunt and uncle in the capital alongside her full blooded elder sister and male and female cousins. Her extended family was a greedy bunch and basically prepped her and her beautiful sister to be seductresses through "lewd" dance lessons and other courtesan arts from a young age so they could pimp them out to curry favor with the rich. FL's sister ended up falling in love with someone whose identity wasn't good enough for the extended family's tastes so they split up the couple and prepared the sister to be sent as a concubine to some powerful old geezer. The sister refused her fate but ended up crippled in her escape attempt. The family was very angry at her but by chance, FL happened to be seen and admired by Rui Wang. His impression of her was so great that he immediately wanted to marry her as his wife despite her lackluster background and quickly got the Dowager Empress's consent. Because of this, FL's weight in the family changed and so they didn't dare to treat her sister harshly anymore. FL endured her reluctance to be sent around like a gift because of her love for her sister. (Here's an anecdote of their childhood to show how they grew up. When the girls first came to the family, they refused to take the demeaning dance lessons ordered by the aunt and uncle. The elder sister was very proud and would not budge despite being starved and beaten for her insolence. In the end, the sister cracked and acquiesced because FL almost fell into a well and died after she tried to get water to quench her thirst.)

On the day of FL's wedding, Rui Wang's full blooded elder brother, the Emperor, caught sight of FL and immediately became infatuated. He took her away to a temple with some bullsh*t excuse and proceeded to force himself on her for days on end. Rui Wang was humiliated by the turn of events and the Dowager Empress was furious that her two sons were feuding over a woman. In this life, FL had grown disillusioned with the Emperor and his "love" and hatched a plan to eventually leave the palace. Somehow, this ended up involving recruiting the help of the Emperor's biao cousin, ML General Pei Ji (son of the Grand Elder Princess/Emperor's paternal aunt). At first, Pei Ji was disgusted by FL and blamed her for his cousins' disharmony, but after a few repeat encounters and shenanigans, he eventually came to sympathize with her. During all this, the Emperor winded up securing his mother's passive consent to officially bring FL into the palace as a consort by promising to make her barren and render her a paper tiger in case of future power struggles. FL resented his arbitrary decision making but appeared docile and submissive to his face at all times. After she entered the palace, she attracted the envy and jealousy of the other consorts by becoming the near-exclusive recipient of the Emperor's love and favour. The highest ranking woman in the harem before that was a shufei (i forgot her family name) who truly loved the Emperor. She was very heartbroken to learn of his new beloved but was determined to not act rashly as to make him think badly of her (oh thank god... I don't rlly like harem intrigue and this novel had very little bits of them) the palace had no Empress so shufei had been the de facto leader of the harem before this, but when FL entered the harem, she was bestowed the title guifei, a position higher than shufei. Although FL was guifei, she was a recluse and did not take the initiative to snatch power from shufei so for the most part, they were able to coexist no probs.

During an imperial banquet one night, General Pei ended up succumbing to the schemes of the Princess Royal (??? Forgot her title. She's the Emperor's full blooded sister and is General Pei's cousin) by ingesting an aphrodisiac. The princess was in love with him (one-sidedly) and intended to force him to marry her by creating a s*xual encounter between them. Unfortunately for her, the plans got thwarted and General Pei ended up going to FL for "help" to resolve the problem in his pants while the princess was unknowingly defiled by FL's cousin who mistook her for an ambitious palace maid. When the incident came to light, General Pei claimed that he resolved his situation through sheer will-power and a cold shower while the princess had no explanation for her having a man in her bed. They couldn't kill FL's cousin to silence him because it wouldn't bring back the princess's chastity and might even deprive her potential child of a father, so they ended up having to get married. The marriage would later turn out tumultuous (violence, adultery, abortion (or was it miscarriage? Not sure but it was a messy affair) etc...) but who cares amirite back to FL.

FL secured General Pei's promise to help her using of his guilt, pity and budding love for her. He ended up buying her a house faraway from the capital, arranging her finances, bringing updates on her sister... all while sleeping with her during the time the Emperor's not within the premises. His relationship with the Imperial Family and official position made it easy for him to enter and leave the palace unobstructed and unsuspected.

During this time, relations between Rui Wang and the Emperor worsened as Rui Wang still hated his brother for stealing his wife while the Emperor was bitter that his whole life, he's had to give up many things he liked except the throne to his mother's favorite younger son. He held suspicion that FL longed for her intended husband as well despite FL repeatedly assuring him she's never so much as had a conversation with Rui Wang prior to the wedding. Rui Wang was so ANNOYING he kept pestering her after she entered the palace and putting her in difficult situations despite her trying to tell him she didn't want to leave with him (tactfully... because these men don't seem to take clear cut rejection very well). Rui Wang would eventually turn against his brother at the instigation of some... sh*t stirrer general idk and then leave for the borders to secretly raise troops. He felt emasculated by his brother's actions and believed that power was the only tool to get what he wanted regardless of consequence.

In the palace, FL endured criticism and hostility from everyone around her as they accused her of confusing the Emperor and facilitating nepotism. This was because her nasty ass uncle's family got ennobled with a Dukedom despite her actively trying to prevent them from climbing up. The Emperor acted without her input again and gave her uncle a position thinking it would please her, disregarding how bad it would make her look to his people. Later on, she would also be accused of pushing shufei into the water. Shufei had just been diagnosed as pregnant prior to that and people suspected she was jealous. The Emperor knew it wasn't her but still treated her like a suspect as to not piss his mother and court off. FL wasn't bothered by his disfavor and used the new free time to... cultivate feelings with her lover. After the case and her innocence got cleared up, FL used the Emperor's unfair treatment of her to guilt him into staying away. She brought up her forced infertility, criticism against her for monopolizing his favor and delaying heirs, and alleged nepotism as reasons why she's discontent. The Emperor guiltily accepted her complaints and left her alone for some time. They stopped being intimate from this time on. FL began to open up to General Pei some more, making him develop deeper feelings for her. At some point, he came to learn of her forced infertility and the physical agony the aggressive medicine wreaked on her body, so he secretly smuggled her to a doctor outside who began to cure her. Eventually, the Emperor grew tired of pushing her away and tried to reconcile with her, only for her to treat him coldly. In a fit of emotion, he told her to go back to her natal family to oversee her sister's wedding (sister managed to marry her beloved after some twists and turns and support from General Pei), an order than many people believed to be a signal of her loss of favor.

After the wedding was completely, the Emperor left the palace to personally meet her and beg for her forgiveness in a private setting, only to be rejected again. He disregarded her feelings and ordered her to return to the palace, breaking the hope that FL had that she could use the time away from the palace to escape. In the palace, FL continued to refuse the Emperor's visits. Her female cousin was jealous of her grand looking life and sought to become a concubine too by seducing the Emperor. The Emperor was disgusted by her disloyalty to her family member but bedded her anyway as to humiliate her. He didn't intend on canonizing her as an imperial concubine and meant to send her back in the morning (after everyone knew she spent a whole night in his palace) to ruin her, thinking FL would be pleased with her treacherous cousin's fate. Contrary to his expectations, FL told him how once again, his arbitrary actions would only serve to harm her and her reputation. Her cousin being sent back in this manner would incite rumours what she was the reason for this and that she was jealous, unfilial to the elders, and ungrateful to the family who brought her up.

The incident ended with her having another reason to be cold to the Emperor, so he became angry and took his anger out on the cousin by making her a concubine, but gave her an ambiguous title that made it seem like she was an ordinary nobleman's wife and not a member of the imperial harem. He visited her frequently and used her as a replacement for FL, but made her position shabby and look like an outside mistress to humiliate and depress her.

Outside the capital, war was brewing because Rui Wang was coming back with an army to usurp his brother's throne. The news eventually reached everyone and FL is blamed from the war despite her only being the needle that broke the camel's back. More stuff happened, and the Emperor finally learned that FL had been having an affair behind his back the entire time. He summoned her to his quarters and prepared to "send her off" but got interrupted by Pei Ji who rushed there fresh out of battle after hearing his beloved was going to be punished. The Emperor was very shaken seeing his unemotional cousin holding a woman so tenderly. At this point, the two men's relationship had already broken down irretrievably for reasons unrelated to FL and was hanging by a mere string (Pei Ji's father made him swear to be loyal and fight for his country). Emperor's growing paranoia and callous treatment of the old but loyal ministers (that also included Pei Ji's father) chilled the officials' heart and gave rise to sh*t stirrer ladder climbers like shufei's natal family. Pei Ji admitted to the affair on site and told him that he would continue to fight against the opportunistic invaders for the country's sake but would no longer intervene with him and his brother's war with each other.

Eventually, Rui Wang would die from his own general (I think) while the Emperor died from shufei's schemes. Shufei had a son by him and became worried for her son's future when she saw how unstable and indecisive the Emperor was. Her powerful natal family used her fears to instigate her into killing the Emperor and installing their son as the new monarch. This would turn out to be short-lived as Pei Ji would later return to unite the country divided by war as its leader and declare himself the new Emperor.

Oh... anyways in the mean time FL also eventually overcame her mental barriers and self imposed single wamunhood during her time waiting for him in the war, unsure of when and if she would ever see him again each time she said goodbye. They got married properly and she became her legal wife and mother of their children, the end blah blah.

in fact, I wholly rooted for their adultery and found FL's decision to use her beauty and sexuality as a tool commendable. She got a rebirth but she was still the same powerless, beautiful woman from a low class family being shuttled between these powerful brothers. She didn't gain any superpowers, so it makes sense that she used her one asset - beauty - to seduce ML, take back some control of her life, get herself some agency, and ensure her future.

the FL mentioned that although the ML respects her, even he still deeply believes that men should rule the world. So although the ML was being written a bit too perfect for my liking, it was nice that they gave us this tidbit.

"He felt like a fish on a chopping board, helpless and at the mercy of the person holding the blade. And she was the one wielding the knife"

FL knows the future from her dream, but does nothing to prevent it other than arranging General Pei (ML) as her escape route, and packing her things a few days earlier when it's time to leave. The rest - invasions, the Emperor's decline, etc. - She doesn't bother to avoid. Other than sleeping with the Emperor and the General Pei, and staying in her quiet area, the FL is extremely passive.

So, FL is sleeping with the Emperor and General Pei lots, Emperor's health declines, politics war politics, fight for the throne, etc.

Aside from jealous cousins and princesses, the women are mature and chill in the story - and that makes sense, since the men make a mess of things already, there's no need for harem politics.

I guess the novel didn't appeal to me that much because most of the start is the super-gorgeous beautiful seductive 15-year-old FL dealing with all the powerful men like a seasoned pro, and very little insight/emotions going on inside the FL. It was hard to feel connected to anyone in the story. The Emperor, Prince Rui were both entitled scumbags, the General was insta-love (he was happy to fall for her), and most of the story is about the decline of the dynasty and the fast rise of the new. But it's a HE. 2 years later, the 17-year-old FL and ML get married, ML is now the new Emperor, and he promises to be monogamous.