One Night Before Execution

Fiona Linetti wants to go on living. Her father and stepmother have sent her into the palace to attend the old emperor, and when he dies three days later she is to be buried with him. At the funeral she seduces the handsome monk reciting the scriptures. The monk is the new emperor, and he spares her. She is pregnant by him when she runs home, where her stepmother forces her into a marriage in her sister's place and she nearly drowns for it. The emperor takes her back to the palace. Her stepsister Lin Baozhou keeps building accusations against her, the empress dowager sets her own obstacles, and Fiona gets out of each one, until she is made empress and rules alongside him.