I Conquered Ancient Times with My High School Songbook

The heroine, Lin Wan, is a student at a music conservatory. While moving house, she comes across the song-copying notebook she kept in high school. As she looks through it, she accidentally falls from the upper floor and finds her soul transported to an alternate dynasty. She becomes A Wan, the daughter of a gambler at the very bottom of society, and is about to be sold to a brothel. Her notebook comes along with her. Luckily, she’s only eight, so she doesn’t have to entertain customers. Still, she’s a budding beauty, and the brothel madam plans to groom her into a top courtesan. As the heroine grows up, she sees another side of the women in the brothel: they scheme against and frame one another, in a rivalry even fiercer than Empresses in the Palace. Some are betrayed; others are bought back not long after being freed by a benefactor. It makes the heroine realize that love is a luxury in this feudal society, and her values are reshaped again and again. Nothing can be relied on; the only person she can count on is herself. She needs money. So while working as a courtesan, she does her best to save money and hide it away, planning to escape when she gets the chance. But she underestimates the cleverness of people in ancient times. Just then, someone sets up the brothel madam’s son, and he nearly gets killed. In a panic, the madam flees with her son. Taking the opportunity, the heroine buys the brothel, intending to free the women and leave this place for a quiet life as a small landowner in the countryside. But many of the older women at the brothel tell her, “You’re a woman, and a beautiful one at that. Without connections or a man to rely on, you’ll be harassed wherever you go. Believe in the good in the world if you want, but never underestimate the evil in people’s hearts.”