After Transmigrating as a Villainous Beauty Even the Crown Prince and Ministers Vied to Please Me

Jiang Li, a modern medical expert who transmigrated into the body of the Hengguo Duke's Mansion's eighteenth young lady, spent her childhood feigning idiocy to survive the treacherous household politics. At thirteen, she orchestrated a daring escape with her beloved consort mother, Yu Shi, faking her death to flee the mansion's oppressive control. Six years later, she has built a modest life as a traveling physician with her stepfather and younger brother. However, the Duke's Mansion tracks them down, using her family's lives as leverage to force her back. The matriarch, Old Madam Wan, demands that Jiang Li marry the deposed Crown Prince, now the Prince of Ping, a man confined to a wheelchair and considered politically useless following a disastrous military defeat three years prior.

Confronted by her former relatives, Jiang Li refuses to submit passively. She leverages the imperial decree, which specifically names her as the bride, to threaten the Duke's Mansion with charges of treason if they attempt to substitute another woman. She exposes the family's financial mismanagement and moral corruption, forcing them to negotiate. The conflict escalates as Old Madam Wan reveals she has captured Jiang Li's new family, but Jiang Li remains unyielding, threatening to drag the entire mansion down with her if they harm her loved ones. Through sharp wit and ruthless pragmatism, she secures a dowry of thirty thousand taels of silver and ensures her family's temporary safety before departing for the Prince's sealed residence.

Upon arriving at the Prince of Ping's mansion, Jiang Li faces immediate hostility from the staff, led by the sycophantic steward Wang Jingrong. The household is in a state of decay, with neglected gardens and empty stores, reflecting the Prince's fallen status. During the wedding ceremony, the servants attempt to humiliate her by presenting a dead rooster for the ritual, but Jiang Li calmly exposes their malice and asserts her authority. She is soon reunited with her younger sister, Douchou, who had also escaped the Duke's Mansion and joins her in the royal residence. Jiang Li immediately begins to reorganize the household, taking charge of the kitchen and securing food supplies, displaying a practicality that confounds the loyal but impoverished servants, Jian Lai and Mosheng.

The Prince of Ping remains hidden in his chambers, suffering from periodic poisonings and deep despair. He is unaware of Jiang Li's arrival until she sends him chicken noodle soup, an act of kindness that surprises his attendants. Jiang Li maintains a careful distance, viewing the marriage as a temporary shelter rather than a romantic union. Her primary goal is to survive, protect her family, and eventually escape the confinement. She visits a local fortune teller, Old Man Gao, who hints that the Prince is not a villain and that her fate is still in her own hands. Meanwhile, the Prince's condition worsens, and Jiang Li finds herself drawn into the mystery surrounding his paralysis and the political conspiracies that led to his downfall, setting the stage for a complex struggle for survival and truth within the sealed walls of the royal mansion.