黑月光她只想夺权 (Hēi Yuè Guāng Tā Zhǐ Xiǎng Duó Quán; The Black Moonlight Just Wants to Seize Power) by 元余 (Yuán Yú)
Historical romance web novel completed on January 20, 2025

Shi Yuanxi was infamous in the capital.

She had ruthlessly secured three marriages for herself.

In order to climb the social ladder and gain favor with the powerful and influential, she resorted to every possible scheme, from associating with a notorious playboy to pursuing the esteemed heir of a marquis, and even nearly becoming involved with a powerful minister at court.

But as the saying goes, “the higher you climb, the harder you fall.” Three times she schemed, three times she failed.

After her last engagement was broken off, she became the laughingstock of the entire capital.

Her family couldn’t bear the shame, so they sent her to the countryside.

Originally, she was destined to live a life of poverty and misery, and die in despair. But by a strange twist of fate, she was unexpectedly transported to the world of modern society.

In the past, in order to marry into a good family, she worked tirelessly for years, mastering all the accomplishments expected of a woman, such as playing musical instruments, calligraphy, and painting. To cultivate a reputation for virtue and propriety, she diligently practiced etiquette, striving to become a refined and dignified young lady from a respectable family.

However, once she arrived in the modern world, she realized that there are countless ways for people to live a good life.
Therefore, she studied hard and strove for success, and in just fifteen years, she joined the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

On the very day she was awarded the highest honor, she was sent back.

By this time, she had been banished to the countryside for three years, and the political situation in the capital was turbulent. Her former acquaintances, unable to restrain themselves any longer, were all extending offers of support.

They all assumed that she would once again try to secure a good marriage for herself.

Unexpectedly, what she sought this time was power and wealth.
It was the power to control her own life with her own hands.

What she desired was no longer the affection of a single person or the protection of the entire clan. Instead, she would ascend to the imperial court, enter the high halls of power, and be granted titles and high positions!

She sought not marriage, but power, and in doing so, she plunged the entire capital city into turmoil.
Even more so, there were those who, simply to earn a glance from her, tossed and turned sleeplessly night after night.
They were willing to sacrifice everything to stand by her side.

Note: The male lead is not any of the previous three fiancés.

Content Tags: Courtly Romance, Time Travel, Thrilling Read, Lighthearted

Theme: Your life is in your own hands. – My translation from the site blurb

The January TBR prompt is “Still Here” and I feel that on multiple levels – first of all, ALBTALBS, especially after the server/behind the scenes fuckery. (And I was still paying for everything 😡) And the heroine of this book. This had a really unique premise, one I hadn’t read before, where the heroine was from the world of the book, but transmigrates to the modern world, then is brought back. It was interesting also that the timelines differed; in her actual world, she was only “gone” (or not mentally there) for three years. But she spent 15 years in the modern world. She’s brought back to the capital by her utter shit family, and friends she’s here and better than ever.

Before I read the book I wasn’t quite sure what a “black moonlight” was – I didn’t know if it’s just a term I don’t know, if it’s something the author made up, if it’s the opposite of a “white moonlight” as in she’s not the one that got away, or that she’s not the “pure perfect first love.” And I think it’s layers of both – previously her three former fiancés all abandoned her for power. And they were the ones who broke things off with her. The last one there actually was mutual affection, and he had thought he could run his schemes and just bring her back … but he still never thought much of her, or how any of that would impact her. And didn’t care or do anything when his new fiancee he immediately acquired ruined the heroine’s reputation. The heroine’s resilience in coming back also is another aspect of “still here.”

Note in ancient China a woman’s reputation was (unfortunately) everything. In some eras a bad one is nothing like what we’d think today – it could mean forcing a person to her literal death. Either suicide, or her family would straight up kill her so as to not affect the other family members. Awful, I know. (And ridiculous. Fuck you, Confucius and Mencius.)

Our heroine is Shi Yuan Xi. Her parents are pretty much useless and nonentities. Her aunt and uncle are the people who largely (used to) control her life. Her uncle has the higher official position, her aunt is more assertive and has a more noble family background. And it’s super gross. Her eldest cousin stole her first fiancé. Yuan Xi’s aunt (and uncle) told her fiancé “hey if you marry our daughter instead of Yuan Xi, we’ll help you with your career.” And so he broke off the engagement and married the cousin who never treated Yuan Xi well. Worse, the family brings Yuan Xi back from the countryside to be this dude’s concubine to try to make married life better for her cousin. You’re probably thinking are you fucking kidding me?! And … no, no I am not. Satisfying for us, the guy is useless and hasn’t accomplished anything. Yuan Xi is basically like “if you make me be his concubine, well, he’s still in love with me, and I’ll blow your daughter’s marriage up.” Hilarious. Her family then tries to force her into becoming the concubine of her second ex-fiance, as he’s a general and the heir to a marquisdom. Yuan Xi is of course still uninterested. She gets out of her situation by going to school, determined to become a female official, and work for the court. She’s able to think of this and do this because when she transmigrated to the modern world, she realized how many more options there were out there than just “get married,” and focused her studies on Ancient China and Classical Chinese. (And then unfortunately, guns. I know others might not feel as strongly about it, but I just … do not love guns. And sadly it’s a huge part of this book. Honestly other than the slightly weak romance, the guns and weaponry are what kept this from being a 5 star/A(+) read for me.)

Yuan Xi is also very “fuck your feelings.” For example when her 2nd ex tries to come find her, this is how it goes:

But she said, “Young Master Pei is overthinking this.”
“I have always valued cleanliness.”
“I never share men.”
“Also, I don’t follow conventions. Men, if they’re not up to the task, can be replaced. Do you want me to be a concubine?” she said expressionlessly, “I advise you to give up on this idea.”
“Otherwise, when I enter your household, I might bring you a few good brothers, and that wouldn’t be pretty.”
“Wouldn’t you agree?”

Iconic.

Our hero is Xu Jing He. He’s a bit of an agent of chaos. His older brother (although this is a bit of a secret/nobody talks about it) was the biggest support of the previous emperor prior to him taking the throne, and made him a fortune. You could say he’s the one that funded the empire and the reason the then prince could become emperor at all. However the brother was wrongfully accused and executed. So Jing He honestly wants to burn everything down. He comes from a rich, powerful noble family, and controls a navy … and is a rather high ranking court official especially for his age. The only reason he doesn’t tear everything apart is because he realizes Yuan Xi really cares about the country and the people, and he’ll do anything to help her and support her. In a way he’s the most developed hero I’ve read by this author. (After I read this book I picked up three more books by this author, so yes I’ve read/am reading four in a row by her.) In a way it’s because – it’s not that Yuan Xi gets a bad vibe from him, but that she feels something is “off” and she can’t see through him so she doesn’t trust him. (And the same for him … at first, but he also falls first and falls hard.) It was a little bit I wasn’t sure if he was helping her initially to more just promote his own agenda, or if he’d already fallen for her and didn’t even himself know it … or both. (For example my note for chapter 83 was just “XJH has caught some feelings – does he know?!”) He a little bit resists it/pretends he is until 113 until he “propositions” her … but with forever. So. But by 134 it’s:

He said firmly, “In everything else, I’ll follow your lead.”
“Your heart belongs to the world, not the inner chambers. I’d never clip the wings of a phoenix.”
“As long as I’m in your eyes.”

This was such a satisfying “see our heroine overcome and win at life” read. And all the villains were so infuriating but not ridiculous. What I mean by that is I was so angry and I hated them – but I wasn’t like “this is so stupid.” I think it’s batshit the Wei family was able to do so much, but also understand/it made sense that their decades of control had led to this situation. The current state of affairs is that the previous emperor (the guy Xu Jing He’s brother helped) died young and childless, so the Empress Dowager and her family (the Wei clan) found a young prince – one of the newly deceased emperor’s brothers – to take the throne. So the new/current emperor is only three years old, and the country is essentially being run by the Empress Dowager and her brother, along with their followers. The emperor’s birth mother was a lower ranking concubine and she’s sent to a temple. It’s a bit of a mess, and you’d think “why wasn’t she made Empress Dowager?” but it’s because Empress Dowager Wei is still there, and she’s technically the current young emperor’s legitimate/legal mother … and even if she wasn’t, when she and her family control the court and all the power, who would say otherwise? Contradicting them literally means death.

Xu Jing He wants to tear it all down … Shi Yuan Xi wants to eradicate the corruption in the court and build a better, stronger, thriving country. Yuan Xi allies herself with the emperor’s birth mother. As the current people in power are the Weis and other corrupt officials, Jing He and Yuan Xi’s interests often align. Yuan Xi is also quite cheeky and often borrows Jing He’s authority, and leaves him her messes to clean up. It’s a good amount of “the enemy of my enemy is a friend.” She even has the gall to say “look I’m helping you!”

Not only does Yuan Xi do well in school, which allows her to enter officialdom (though of course her journey isn’t smooth), she also gains merit by (sigh) submitting a blueprint for a newer more powerful gun. What minutely made things better for me is that guns existed in the world prior to her first transmigration. So at least she didn’t entirely bring them in – but just … she made a much more destructive version. And an assault rifle, which I … basically tried to ignore. (And some bombs … thankfully she keeps those pretty secret.) The weapons are important because the country is often at war. Plus this is a time(line) where rich and powerful families all have their own secret guards, which depending on how wealthy a person is could amount to a small personal army.

Beyond everything else (and there’s a lot, what with our heroine taking on an official career in the court vs. doing business or anything else), two things really stood out to me as being unique in this book. For one, Yuan Xi always has an excellent relationship with the young emperor, and his birth mother. No later suspicion or broken relationship. That made me so happy – I was literally worried the whole time. In fact she largely maintains a good relationship with his daughter who later takes the throne too. The second, is I think that Yuan Xi and Jing He never get married. The author is a bit vague – and the “extra”/”after” is told via a look into a modern day web forum of people discussing them … so it says they had a kid but I couldn’t tell if it really was theirs or one of her nieces or nephews. It’s not really important – but just … they never formalized things which is scandalous. I think the whole point was to underline and maintain how unconventional Yuan Xi is. And how accommodating Jing He is. He’ll do whatever she wants – he just wants to be with her.

The supportive secondary characters were also excellent. Some of Yuan Xi’s classmates, who are in a way Jing He’s students. There’s a group of really good guys. The emperor’s birth mother, the little emperor once he gets to have any sort of say. The righteous ministers of the court who care about the people. Some literally stick their necks out to protect the people. You can meet them when you read the book. 😉

I needed a read like this too – where we have a selfless heroine who is willing to risk herself for the common people, and the country. A story where corruption is punished and eradicated. Where good wins. (I just wish guns weren’t such a huge part of the story! *sigh*) There are so many twists and turns I’m not going to get into because I already dropped enough spoilers. (Although not ones that would affect your reading enjoyment, at least in my opinion. And going in with peace of mind is important, especially with a cnovel!)

I can definitely see myself re-reading this book, and I’ll be reading more by the author too. As I said, I read four books in a row by this author – every single historical romance she’s written. (I started this review a while ago and finished it later.) I gave it four stars on GR – seriously – so many guns. 😐 But I rated it …

Grade: A- –