Reborn: The Noble Consort Doesn't Want to Slack Off, She Just Wants to Rise to the Top

[Male lead has prior experience, heroine is pure + palace intrigue + career-focused + clear-headed heroine]

Watching the drunken Crown Prince, she reached out a small hand and pressed it against his firm chest, dodging his kiss. But in doing so, she accidentally revealed a generous expanse of pale skin. Her fingers seemed to brush his belt by chance as she wept, her face streaked with tears: “Your Highness... We can't do this...”

Nan Chen and his wife had always been deeply devoted to one another, but one night, drunk, he did something unforgivable.

Afterward, every smile and frown of hers tugged at his heart. He knew he had fallen for someone he should never have loved.

Shen Nianwan was breathtakingly beautiful, but as a concubine-born daughter, she had seen the harshness of life from childhood. All she had wanted was to live quietly, but the gears of fate began to turn when she was sixteen.

After her legitimate elder sister suffered a miscarriage and could no longer conceive, her stepmother decided that Shen Nianwan was easy to manipulate and tried to persuade her to become the Crown Prince's concubine.

But Shen Nianwan refused. Then, through a moment's carelessness, she was set up by someone. When she woke, everything had changed.

She had spent the night with the Crown Prince. Anyone who saw them would know what had happened.

The Crown Prince looked at her with disgust, convinced she would stop at nothing to marry into the Eastern Palace. Her elder sister couldn't believe she would do such a thing. Though bitterly disappointed, she still pleaded on her behalf.

Later, Shen Nianwan gave birth to a son, but the child was taken away immediately after birth. She was disposed of without ever seeing him.

Given another life, she will never let others trample her as they did before. If her stepmother wants her to bear the Crown Prince an heir, then she will give her exactly what she wants.

Content warning: The male lead is not chaste, but will eventually fall for her. The heroine is no saint; she's truly awful! Selfish and self-serving, she'll do whatever benefits her. Please only read if you're okay with that, thank you!