After Qing Transmigration, I Raise the Crown Prince into a Useless Goofball

Lin Xiaoman, a modern early childhood education teacher, transmigrates into the lowest-ranking menial palace maid at Jingren Palace during the Kangxi era.

From the start, she slips into a lotus pond and rescues four-year-old Yinreng, a little crybaby. Since she's the only person willing to hold him after his birth mother, Empress Xiaochengren, dies, Consort Hui promotes her beyond her station to become the Crown Prince's companion.

She only wanted to earn enough to get by, but is forced to unlock the side quest of “raising a kid through hilarious antics”:

She teaches him right from wrong with “Ultraman fighting monsters,” makes him laugh by whistling through leaves, and turns the Analects into rap to make him memorize it... Consort Hui complains that she's fooling around, but when Kangxi sees them, he laughs and says, “There is a certain charm to it.”

But this crown prince isn't someone she's going to raise into a failure. He's clearly a treasured child starved of affection.

Once as timid as a quail, after she gently wins him over, he secretly slips her a piece of candy. “When I grow up, I'll protect you, Big Sister Xiaoman.”

He uses the “put yourself in someone else's shoes” lesson she taught him to resolve disputes at court. When praised for having the makings of a benevolent ruler, he blushes and murmurs, “Big Sister Xiaoman taught me.”

Kangxi goes from complaining that she has no manners to giving her osmanthus cakes: “You've raised my crown prince like a daughter more precious than your own.”

Consort Hui goes from worrying that Xiaoman will steal her credit to wiping away tears and saying, “You understand him better than I do.”

And in the end, thanks to Xiaoman's irreverent way with him, Yinreng grows into a new emperor who knows how to be affectionate and govern, and who says with red-rimmed eyes on the night of his coronation, “Mother, I want to plant an osmanthus tree so I can be with you.”

This isn't a tale of palace intrigue and climbing to power. It's a healing story about a hilarious office drone raising a “tool-like crown prince starved of love” into a little ray of sunshine.

See how modern early childhood wisdom breaks through the perils of the imperial palace, and how a child starved of affection grows both armor and vulnerability through love.

After all... raising the crown prince into a failure? Not a chance.