It had been three months since Ling Jiu had transmigrated. Through trial and error and the original body’s memories, she had finally figured out the details of her situation.

  To start off, this was the Liang dynasty, a period of time in history that was widely renowned in modern day as the golden age of China. Ruled by the Xiao cn, the Liang dynasty thrived for six hundred years before ultimately falling due to some poor decisions its ter monarchs made.

  Right now, it was currently the seventh year of Zhaoming and Ling Jiu was just a distant cousin of the current emperor. Her current body’s name was Xiao Jiureng. (昭明 zhaoming - bright and wise)

  The retionship between the emperor and Xiao Jiureng could be traced back to two generations ago. The current emperor’s father was the full-blooded brother of Xiao Jiureng’s grandfather, making them first cousins once removed. Because of this retionship, Ling Jiu was lucky enough to be a fairly notable imperial duke.

  The body’s grandfather, Xiao Chuye, had been an important pilr of the te emperor’s court. As the full-blooded emperor of the Jiaxi Emperor, he had been granted the title of first rank Prince of State Jin. As titles would degrade per every generation, when Xiao Chuye died, the body’s father, Xiao Qiufeng, became the second rank Commandery Prince Jinyong. With the title degrading once again when Xiao Qiufeng passed, the original body succeeded the family title and became the first rank Duke Jinyong. (嘉熙 jiaxi - auspicious and prosperous; 矜 jin - esteemed; 雍 yong - harmony)

  Besides his retionship to the current emperor, Xiao Jiureng also had a handful of siblings. He had one full-blooded younger sister, Xiao Mingrui, and one full-blooded younger brother, Xiao Ningreng. As for his half-siblings, he had seven— three girls and four boys.

  Xiao Jiureng was the fourth son. He had only inherited the title of Duke Jinyong by virtue of being the eldest legitimate son born of Xiao Qiufeng’s principal wife, the former Princess Consort Jinyong— Madam Cheng Yun.

  Ling Jiu was quite satisfied with her new identity. He was rich, handsome, the head of the household, and most importantly: influential enough to not be easily bullied, but distant enough from the main branch of the imperial family to not be involved in grand political schemes normally revolving around princes.

  And yet, Ling Jiu still had a few issues.

  First off, why did she have to reincarnate into ancient times!?? There were no phones, no TVs, no radios, no technology at all!!! Even the bathrooms in this era were less than satisfactory! She was bored to death everyday while recovering from her alleged memory loss, doing absolutely nothing as servants fawned over her every move. She couldn’t even go out to get fresh air without servants tailing behind her!

  And then, there was the fact that she had transmigrated into a man. A MAN. As in a member of the male sex.

  Ling Jiu had spent 17 good years as a girl and now she had gained an extra dick overnight. It was actually tragic. But considering she had been transmigrated into ancient times, she supposed it wasn’t so bad. At least now, she wouldn’t have to be oppressed by her husband and used by her family or something. It could be a lot worse in this archaic, deeply feudal and patriarchal society.

  There was still one more massive issue though.

  Her current body, Xiao Jiureng, had his fate already written out for him. In Ling Jiu’s time, he was known as Emperor Shenwu of Liang with the temple name Shizong. Ling Jiu remembered him so clearly for two reasons. The first being that they shared the same ‘Jiu’ character in their names— superficial, but she couldn’t be bmed! Secondly, Shenwu was the greatest emperor of the Liang era and arguably within the entire history of China.

  The bad thing about this? Being emperor was too much work. That and Shenwu’s reign was so tumultuous it made even the most chaotic emperor’s reigns look like light stuff. Under no circumstance did she ever want to become emperor.

  In the three months that she had been here, Ling Jiu had taken the time to sort out some information to prepare for her impending fate. She wanted to prevent any chance that she would become emperor.

  The information was as follows:

  The Crown Prince would be killed by the Second Prince sometime soonThe Third Prince would die in a boating accident sometime soonThe Second and Fifth Princes would be stripped of their royal status, expelled from the royal family, and exiled to the faraway LingzhouThe Sixth Prince would ascend the throneThe Seventh, Eighth, and Tenth Prince would die from a pgue that would strike the capital within 2 years The Ninth Prince, young and immature, would die soon because of the scheming of concubinesIn five years, two emperors would die successively one after another, leaving Xiao Jiureng, as the closest legitimate male retive to ascend the throne

  Truthfully speaking, being emperor wouldn’t be so bad. But Ling Jiu was a 17 year old girl from modern times, not some ultra genius who could easily maneuver court politics. It wasn’t that she had no faith in herself, more that she’d rather avoid the risk. Plus, Ling Jiu knew better than to relegate state duties to a regent, lest she end the dynasty and her cushy life. Then there was also the issue of opening a harem.

  She liked men. Men, not women.

  But since she was a man now, Ling Jiu would probably have to marry a woman in the future. It would be.. difficult to stomach considering her own orientation, but at least she had significantly more control as just a royal scion. The emperor had to keep in mind the entire nation. Ling Jiu could be selfish and only care for herself.

  Ling Jiu was actually a very practical person. When forced into a corner, she would always choose the lesser of the two evils. Clearly, in this scenario, being emperor was the greatest of the evils.

  Another reason why Ling Jiu was so against the idea of a harem was simply because she didn’t want to be what caged women. The lives of pace women, women in general, during this time was pitiful. Although the Liang kingdom was considerably more open-minded than other dynasties, women were still very mistreated. While Ling Jiu couldn’t break the system, she certainly didn’t want to contribute to it either.

  As a modern individual, she also believed in the promise of monogamy. Suddenly forcing her to marry an entire battalion of women was something that she would never accept. So, in order to prevent that, she absolutely could not ever become emperor!

  Her pn to prevent that was simple: keep as many princes alive as possible. If all these princes stayed alive and had children then her position in the line of inheritance would keep dropping until she wouldn’t even be a variable.

  After that, she would be free to enjoy her life as a rich and idle royal duke, doing whatever she wanted.