The Palace Maid Only Wants to Slack Off, but Ends Up Becoming a Favored Consort

[Palace intrigue and household drama + no love-struck heroines + faux coercive romance + steady rise to power + satisfying read]

Ji Yunning enters the palace as a maid in place of her elder sister. She could have worked as a cleaning maid in Kunning Palace, then left the palace a few years later to marry.

But a close friend who entered the palace with her is granted the title of Answering Lady, only to be murdered after half a month in the emperor's favor...

She must protect herself, so she decides to take a gamble and do the very thing she once despised...

She schemes against the Crown Prince, Lu Hexiao, and succeeds in becoming his palace attendant.

A palace maid who has been favored for days soon becomes a thorn in the side of everyone in the Eastern Palace...

There's no turning back now, so she grits her teeth and fights on. In just three years, she is promoted to Secondary Consort.

The emperor dies, and Crown Prince Lu Hexiao takes the throne, changing the era name to Jinglin.

She was already Lu Hexiao's favored concubine, and is directly named Consort Ning.

As an imperial consort, she plans her every move, finds good fortune at every turn, and rises in rank while raising her child.

“My life has never truly been my own. More than glory and riches, I only want to keep my child safe and at peace for a lifetime. That's all...”

(The heroine rises through the ranks all the way.)

(The male lead is a crown prince in the early story and an emperor later on. He is not chaste.)

(Set in a fictional dynasty, with no specific historical dynasty as its model.)