The perfume permeates through the air fill the entire room. With his five senses automatically enhanced, his nose is more sensitive than others. Liu Xu Yuan waves his sleeves, dismissing the odor around his body. The phoenix eyes slightly open blurrily taking in the surrounding place.
It seems this world- he’s in an ancient time.
Liu Xu Yuan narrows his eyes, glance down at the beside table. On it scatters a bunch of exquisite calligraphies and studies materials. A look on the fancy handwritten characters can tell that the writer is an extremely patient and focus individual. Slender, pale fingers reach over and lift the pile. At a closer look, the characters turn cursive and wild as if the writer starts to become irritated but also having a time limit. The materials written are detailed and perfectly informed. It talks about the recent major happenings in the country and its implementation on how to advance, obliterating the problem.
This is the original body’s work.
This world’s protagonist is the third prince, Zheng Huiqing. There are 7 princes fighting for the right to the throne, although there hasn’t been a clear name for the crown prince, the emperor mostly favors the third and seventh prince. Zheng Huiqing is born from imperial concubine Qi Xiulan who is another favorite of the emperor’s. Needless to say, this protagonist does not experience much of the bad parenting experiences or go through orphans’ journey, rather he is very much loved by both parents. This in turns make his personality conceited and arrogant, thinking he is above the rest. Of course, he is not far from that. Growing up, Zheng Huiqing is offered all that he desires the only problem he has is the fight for the throne. The emperor very much adores his third and seventh son, born from his favorite concubines ignoring the remaining child. Just because he adores them doesn’t mean they will gain the right to succeed his place but there is an advantage to gaining his favor. Leaving the others behind, Zheng Huiqing only has the seventh prince in his eyes because the latter too is being endlessly praised by his father which means this person is a block to his path of success.
Thus begins the fight between the two brothers. The seventh prince is the last and youngest, having been born from the empress, one would imagine this individual is living easy. However, the empress has been cast aside and thrown into the cold palace thus there isn’t anyone to protect this late-born prince. The empress invests so much time before she can birth this seventh prince but before she could even hold the child, her family drag her down. Someone had leaked information to misled that the empress’s family plans to revolt against the emperor in hope to give his place to the emperor’s brother- Yu Yaoting. Given the envy added with worry, the emperor is thoroughly convinced of the words. It just so happens he came upon the two brother-sister-in-law hanging around by the pond happily, thus without more comments he cast the empress to the cold palace while the rest of the family is beheaded. Because the empress shows sign of bearing a prince and the love between their partnership from before, the emperor only cast her to the cold palace waiting for the prince to be born. After the seventh prince is born, the empress is immediately ordered to drink poison in wine and died right after the baby is born.
Bearing the name of murdering his own mother, the seventh prince starts to turn shy and introverted from being bullied by the maids and his brothers. At the age of turning 5, the emperor’s brother, Yu Yaoting came to take him away seeing how bad he is being treated. Yu Yaoting and the empress has a good relationship, this action of his is to repaid his sister in law’s debt. The empress met her beloved once she had turned 18 when she entered the palace, being engaged to the future heir the adults push them to quickly build a bond. Yu Yaoting has not been born yet only when the emperor succeeds the throne did he came. His mother always has a weak body so she quickly left, his father has spent an immense amount of effort to help cure his wife however it all turns in vile. He decisively follows after with depression, leaving their just born son alone in the new palace. However, the empress quickly took Yu Yaoting in her arms. At the time, the emperor is very much in love with Yu Yaoting’s mother, promising every happiness to their family. The current emperor immediately sat on the throne right after the funeral.
The palace is peaceful with echoed tranquility. One day, the emperor came upon a hidden compartment in the past emperor’s study. His hands shook as if burned and briskly tossed the decree to the ground in rage and anger. Because he was too depressed, his head muddled no one knew of this hidden imperial decree. However, from the beginning Yu Yaoting is to be issued the heir to the throne. Yu Yaoting has just been born so the name of crown prince is temporarily given to his elder brother but he has to give it to Yu Yaoting back once the latter turn fully mature and is ready to take the throne. When he first saw the imperial decree, he severely want to burn it but failed. This is all Yu Yaoting’s plan.
The eunuch beside is a loyal servant to the past emperor, having seen the strong love he had promised the emperor to let the young prince know of the decree. The original imperial decree is in the hand of Yu Yaoting, his subordinate has given a copy for his elder brother to see. Although they are brothers, the emperor rarely comes to see this brother of his even planning to toss the baby away in fear. His mother isn’t favored, his name is only being called crown prince because there weren’t any other competitors. Yu Yaoting’s mother is the only one in the harem but the current emperor is just a result of a mistake. Once Yu Yaoting is born, he naturally would fear of the change decision seeing the parent’s love. He convinced his father to wait until Yu Yaoting is older only then is it suitable to hand the crown prince name to the younger brother. He had forgotten all about it once he reaches the throne, thinking since the past lovers were gone nothing would go against his plan of staying on the throne. Once rotten, always rotten. He is seated above but that doesn’t stop the fear creeping in thus he always avoided Yu Yaoting even going as far to not let the empress take him in.
Yu Yaoting never has set his mind on the throne, he’s earnestly happy being in the palace to study and recuperate- living a carefree prince. The emperor’s fear turns bigger once he saw Yu Yaoting’s compassionate strong mind. He starts to suppress the young prince. Yu Yaoting’s mother is a nobody but his father is a romantic, not caring about the minister’s comments, he wholeheartedly named his wife the sole mother of the country. Civilians burn with envy and admiration with this love of theirs, pity and sympathy for the young prince being alone. The empress is having a hard time raising Yu Yaoting, once the prince turns 14, he decides to leave the empress and ask to for a sole manor living alone. The emperor is more than happy sending him away.
Once Yu Yaoting turns 18, he is sent to the battlefield. Although young, Yu Yaoting has spent time working hard all alone nobody expects him to return safely however he proves them wrong. The emperor seethes with anger, using words of him fighting for justice, he kept sending Yu Yaoting to war thus the boy lives by the border to protect the villagers. His name starts to turn into a glory, people admire and wish to see this hero of the country. Yu Yaoting has earned endless amount of support, some even see him as a god of war and his decisive words on the field or the court is amazingly praised, rendering people speechless and in awe. There were even some presumptuously suggesting him to fight for the throne seeing the emperor’s advance to suppress this brother of his. Because Yu Yaoting has a very grand reputation, the emperor turns more and more irritated his actions turn more aggressive which makes the minster’s scalp turn numb.
Someone start to compare him with his brother, the whole court turns amiss and the emperor left in furry after disbanding whoever dares to mention Yu Yaoting’s name infront of his. Yu Yaoting never pays attention to the begging and callings, only staying by the border but he came back once he heard of the empress’s cruel death and the left baby. Questions occur to why the seventh prince is being favored by the emperor although he is under Yu Yaoting’s protection?
-The emperor wants to turn the seventh prince to be his spy.
This act of favoring is a mask to get the seventh prince to loosen the wall of resistance and open up to him. The emperor wants to gather information about Yu Yaoting’s action, if anything happened, he’ll have the upper hands. Yu Yaoting only decides to increase his position to protect the little one, so the seventh prince is obviously grateful for his uncle. He learns of their bond from his mother’s letters so he fully trusts his uncle. He doesn’t know why the emperor seems to be fighting against his uncle but he stills accept the errands. Yu Yaoting has mentioned his parents to his nephew so the seventh prince understands bit by bit however his uncle never brought up the decree. Although Yu Yaoting treats him nicely like a blood-related, the man himself is cold and overbearing and it could be seen at a glance once he stood on the battlefield, relentlessly killing one enemy by the other.
People suspect the emperor wanting to abolish the younger brother but Yu Yaoting has never stood up to his advances only accepting every trick. They could only sigh at this. Yu Yaoting has control third of the army, more than the others. It would be hard to go against this person. Yu Yaoting and the emperor’s sons has an age-gap of around 10years. Secretly, there has been two sides fighting against each other. It appears to be a fight amongst the princes rather than the backer.
Zheng Huiqing doesn’t know about the seventh prince being a spy for the emperor, only thinking the father wants this other son on the throne as well. The seventh prince has Yu Yaoting as a support which makes it hard for Zheng Huiqing to go against the seventh prince but it all changes once the female lead appears.
Fan Qiang, the female lead, is a transmigrator from the future into the ancient era. An ordinary university student but with the modern knowledge, she still successively won the hearts of the ancient era. The Fan family is close with Qi Xiulan, the imperial concubine. From the mother, the two pair met and fell in love. The Fan family supports the third prince, with Fan Qiang’s future knowledge, Zheng Huiqing starts to admire the lady and soon fall for her charisma and intelligence. With her plans, Zheng Huiqing immediately gains the upper hand and win against the seventh prince.
Fan Qiang immediately gains favor of the family and outsiders, opening up business everywhere and introducing new items to the market for people to envy. The sisters and brothers fighting fall under her, Fan Qiang goes on adventures of gaining pursuers and fighting, getting revenge on people who bully the original body before she came. Especially against her second sister who pushes her to the lake and drown to death. The second sister is in love with the third prince too, you can see where this is going. Fan Qiang starts to check out the third prince. It starts out as a simple gesture to make the second sister jealous but her feelings end up being genuinely attracted to Zheng Huiqing and she helps him plan ahead.
Being a foreign soul with new knowledge, people would gather around the female lead. The seventh prince is the same nevertheless however Fan Qiang does not feel the same towards this prince. She instead turns to the uncle, Yu Yaoting. Fan Qiang uses her charm, Yu Yaoting admires another talent and they start to exchange pointers. They start to become closer, seeing the closeness the seventh prince’s heart churns with jealousy and a truce broke between the uncle-nephew. They grew further apart, without the support of Yu Yaoting, the seventh prince is quickly subdued by Zheng Huiqing. After he broke with Yu Yaoting, he went to Fan Qiang and relentlessly started to spill everything he knows. She connects the dot and starts to piece things together. Fan Qiang gasps.
She doesn’t dare make speculations however she came upon Yu Yaoting’s subordinate talk. Although Yu Yaoting is strong and good looking, the heir to the throne is Zheng Huiqing. Yu Yaoting has succeeded in getting the emperor to be locked in prison for interrogating. He told the empress’s plan was just another scheme from concubine Qi Xiulan. Yu Yaoting never plans to kill this brother of his, he just wanted to make his parent’s promise come true and succeed the throne.
On his way back, he saw his nephew. Seeing the messy figure, he felt distressed. The seventh prince starts to apologize for his actions toward his uncle and the two quickly reconcile however Yu Yaoting never did expect that the nephew ran back to tell Fan Qiang about his plans. Before he even had time to check, news of the emperor’s death came and he is arrested for treason and other deeds.
Once Zheng Huiqing ascends, he had Yu Yaoting tortured for days and finally executed. The army under him, who dares to go against the throne, shall be reduced to labor and rank stripped away or follow their master.
Having been betrayed by the only person he trusts and not wanting to bother with the throne too much, Yu Yaoting never brought up the past decree dying alone in the name off being a traitor. The decree has only been known amongst three living people- the eunuch, the emperor and Yu Yaoting.
Zheng Huiqing and Fan Qiang ascends to the top being the emperor and empress, loved by all.
