The Empress Dowager said the daughters of the Xie family were born to stand at the very top of Taiji Palace. Xie Shujun, however, thought the pepper-salt pastries from the Imperial Food Bureau smelled much better.
On the day of the selection, she played dumb with her head covered in golden hairpins, then pulled out the peony-patterned jade hairpin the Empress Dowager had given her and handed it to the cat as a toy. “This thing is so heavy. Xue Tuan'er's bell sounds much prettier!”
Then she turned and winked at the emperor. “Your Majesty, a salted fish is still a salted fish, even when it flips over. Don't you agree?”
She'd only wanted to lie flat and fade into the background, but instead she was forced to watch the Noble Consort tear into the Empress, and Consort Xian poison a beauty.
Until one day...
“Lady Xie fed the instructing matron's ruler to the cat to sharpen its teeth yesterday!”
“This morning, Lady He watered the Noble Consort's withered Western Regions peonies with mint tea!”
“Just now, Concubine He ‘accidentally’ knocked the Empress's gilt hairpin off in the Nine-Bend Corridor...”
Li Zhen crushed the bowl of contraceptive soup and sneered. “Your Highness is certainly making a lively job of being a salted fish.”
Xie Shujun sucked on a salted plum and propped up her feet, gazing at the sky.
The first rule of surviving in the inner palace:
The ones who lie flattest often fall the hardest.
The tone of this novel is really magical. From the emperor to the concubines to the slaves, it feels like only the Queen Mother is serious about her career. The descriptions of the others are so vivid and outrageous. I have never seen a style 😂. Come on, I want to see how this thing can be written in the end. It is really amazing.
It's quite good. It explains the conflict between imperial power and aristocratic families from multiple angles. Again, I really like Queen Mother Xie!! Women who are engaged in careers are so handsome!! The heroine is really very love-minded. I don't know when she will grow up, become the daughter of the Xie family, and shoulder the glory of the family. The emperor's true love is really ridiculous. I can love you today, but I can love someone else tomorrow. The emperor is so ruthless.
It's more realistic than v1. It's written well, not mindless.