Xiong Rong, a twenty-first-century college student who calls herself “medically useless,” is best at running her mouth and worst at getting lucky. One moment she's asleep, and the next she's transmigrated into an old novel she's never read, as Xiong Rong, the legitimate daughter of the Xiong family and a laughingstock in the capital, infamous for being a spoiled troublemaker. Worse, her father tries to evade an imperial decree by dressing her as a man and sending her into government service to take her sickly older brother's place as a low-ranking official.
Xiong Rong wants to curse him out on the spot. “I can't even pass calculus, and you expect me to climb the career ladder?” But with a knife at her throat, she has no choice but to grit her teeth and go along with it. At least she studied traditional Chinese medicine in her previous life. Her grades were terrible, but she can still bluff her way through acupuncture and prescribing remedies. Then things get even more absurd: one day, she switches souls with Shen Yan, the most untouchable powerbroker in the imperial court. She becomes the cold, calculating old official, while Shen Yan turns into the spoiled troublemaker that she is. Forced to work together, they stage a “split-personality farce” in and out of court, gradually falling for each other as they trade barbs and sabotage one another.
Told entirely in a chatty first-person voice, this story features “office-worker-style government service” and a “soul-swap battlefield of love.” It's sweet and funny, with no system and plenty of twists on the usual tropes. Xiong Rong's motto: “A promotion, a fortune, and a dead rival? No, I just want to clock out.”
