The Fussy Little Empress: The Emperor Can't Handle Her

[Transmigrate into a book + palace intrigue + an underdog palace maid’s rise from cannon fodder to empress + the emperor is unfaithful, the heroine doesn’t love him and puts her career first + the heroine has no children of her own; all her sons and daughters are “adopted”]

Song Yuan, a little-known actress, transmigrates into a book one day.

The good news: she has become the book’s greatest beauty.

The bad news: she has nothing but her looks.

Even worse, she has landed in a palace-intrigue novel.

Worse still, she isn’t the heroine, the second female lead, or even the villain.

She’s just a pretty little cannon-fodder character.

What? Someone says being the greatest beauty in a palace-intrigue novel is quite an honor. Who gets it?

Well, she doesn’t. All she knows is that in the original story,

“she” was an ordinary palace maid. Because of her face, she was presented to the emperor at fourteen.

With no connections and not the slightest bit of cunning, “she”

died at sixteen, before her beauty, as pure as the bright moon in the heavens and as radiant as a blazing peony, could even bloom.

Song Yuan, however, treasures her life above all else.

To stay alive, she can lie low for five years, conceal her beauty, and quietly remain a lowly palace maid.

And, for the very same reason,

she can also set foot on a path strewn with thorns.

The emperor’s perspective:

When she first entered the palace: “Does she like me that much? She isn’t even trying to hide it?”

Ten years after she entered the palace: “Does she dislike me that much? She won’t even pretend?”

Song Yuan: “I’ve played the part for ten years, and I finally made it to empress. I have a son and a daughter, and my position is secure.”

The emperor: “So…?”

Song Yuan: “So, I did love you once.”

Loved… me once?