Who Would Have Thought the Powerful Minister Was a Woman?

Shen Qingyu transmigrated into a family of high nobility. Unwilling to spend her life confined to the inner household, wasting her days away, she disguised herself as a man, took the imperial examinations, and entered officialdom. Thus, the Court of Judicial Review gained a brilliant young official known as Tanhua Shen, a man whose keen eyes missed even the smallest detail. At just eighteen years old, Tanhua Shen was a dazzling beauty in the full bloom of youth. The slender waist concealed beneath those official robes was enough to set countless imaginations running wild. Everyone said that if Lord Shen were a woman, the title of the capital’s greatest beauty could belong to no one else. Yet even while living as a man, Lord Shen never lacked devoted admirers and followers. The barbarian slave she had personally rescued was dark-skinned and powerfully built, and obeyed her every command without question. The gentle, upright, and refined first-place graduate of the latest imperial examinations was her former classmate and close friend. The two were frequently seen together, coming and going as a pair. The Prince of Chu, the reigning emperor’s twin brother, was outwardly harmless but inwardly cunning. He singled out Lord Shen as his closest confidant, even visiting the Shen residence late at night. The handsome but sinister Commander-in-Chief of the Imperial Brocade Guard had always been ruthless and merciless. Yet he had once knelt in the street and pressed a kiss to the back of Lord Shen’s hand. Even the emperor himself, stern and unsmiling upon the imperial dais, his sovereign majesty awe-inspiring, repeatedly bestowed favors upon Lord Shen, granting her exceptional trust and preferential treatment. Yet no matter how those around her behaved, Lord Shen remained seemingly untouched by it all. Like the plaque bearing the words “The Bright Mirror Hangs High” in the Court of Judicial Review, she was cool and unapproachable, pure and unsullied, her gaze untouched by worldly impurities. And so, surrounded by their watchful attention, Shen Qingyu eventually rose to become a powerful minister of her generation, whose influence dominated both the imperial court and the realm beyond it. — Description from novelcodex.orgFull novel: Who Would Have Thought the Powerful Minister Was a Woman? — read the rest free on N​o⁠v​e⁠l​C⁠o​d⁠e​x⁠.​o⁠r​g⁠