The Legitimate Daughter's Scheme: Rising Step by Step in the Officialdom

In her previous life, she was the legitimate daughter of a marquis’s household, yet became a stepping stone for the hero and heroine’s romance. Her hypocritical stepsister schemed against her, and the top scholar she had grown up with betrayed her. In the end, her family fell, and she died a wretched death in the Imperial Prison. Reborn on the eve of her coming-of-age ceremony, she returns to a time before the conspiracies came to light and disaster struck. In this life, she no longer clings to romance. She vows to change her family’s fate, using her memories from her past life and exceptional intelligence to enter officialdom and unravel its mysteries.

She leaves behind the petty intrigues of the inner household and, with her father’s support, enters the Imperial Academy’s Archives Office. Starting as a low-ranking clerk, she audits records, exposes corruption, and solves wrongful convictions, carefully working her way up. When factions at court clash, she meets every move in kind. When old enemies try to trip her up, she turns the tables and serves up face-slapping justice, leaving her stepsister disgraced and her former fiancé filled with regret.

Without a golden finger to rely on, she has only her cool head and unbreakable resolve. As a woman in a male-dominated bureaucracy, she carves out a path to success, rising from clerk to director, from assistant minister to censor, and finally to a powerful regional governor. Every step is earned amid thorns and glory.

At court, she is the iron-fisted official who makes corrupt officials tremble. Within her family, she is the pillar who keeps her relatives safe. Now and then, the cold-faced prince, who had nothing to do with her in her previous life, keeps stopping to watch her. Is he an enemy or an ally? A calamity or a destined love?

Shen Qingci knows only this: In this life, she will wield power and take control of her own fate, making everyone who ever wronged her pay the price they deserve!