From Obscurity to Majesty

Xu Yuetao was a concubine's daughter and wanted out from under her family, so she went into the imperial selection meaning to fail it. Her fiance Zhu Chengjin gave her information about how the selection worked, and the information was wrong, and she was chosen. Inside the palace her legitimate half sister Xu Yuerong and the Noble Consort took turns at her, at one point forcing her to take her meals with the eunuchs. The eunuch Jing Hongzhui was the one who helped her when there was no one else. Her face resembled a woman the Emperor had loved and lost, and with that and her own reading of the room she moved up until she held the rank of noble consort herself. Along the way she learned Chengjin had betrayed her long before, her mother was murdered, and the child she bore died young. What was left of her softness went with them. She and Hongzhui worked together to bring the Noble Consort down and have the Empress deposed, and she went after everyone who had put a hand on her. She reached the position of Empress Dowager with no family and no love left, and Hongzhui still standing beside her.