Honestly that's what I thought at first. I put so much trust into her and even as I read some of the earlier spoilers I was in denial.
However, that is definitely not the case, because in the spoilers she plotted the death of the mc. Ml was called away because Lin was 'sick' and in that time assassins came to kill the mc. Mc died and was 'reborn' in another body two years later and mc dressed up as a guy to become a servant in the palace. Ml fell for 'him' since he had so many similar mannerisms to mc, and when Lin realized this, she tried to frame the mc by hurting herself and actually RE-ENACTED the empresses' death (making it bloody and saying the same thing the empress said while she was dying) to bring back the Ml's trama...
If the spoilers in https://forum.novelupdates.com/threads/college-student-empress.105394/page-5 are correct, it's seriously made me reconsider continuing to read this. And this spoiler may ruin the story for you, so be warned...
.
.
.
I fully trusted concubine Lin. I thought all the looks she was giving was just a red herring. But it turns out that she's a backstabbing asshole huh? WHY CAN'T THERE BE PURE FRIENDSHIP WITHOUT A GUY GETTING IN THE WAY GODDAMMIT.
I'm just... sigh. I really don't understand her mind. The emperor was into you, but you weren't. You had a friend that you liked. But of course the second the emperor is interested in your friend you start to feel jealous. And then plot to kill her. Of course!
Like wtf... All those years and you never saw the emperor that way, why's it gotta be now? I doubt she loves the emperor, she's just jealous because the attention's off her now