I Picked Up an Empress for a Wife

The Lu family is so wealthy in Haicheng that they might as well be richer than the whole country.

Lu Ling has three older brothers, and every one of them is a chief. Their family controls three of the five ports in Haicheng Prefecture, and their maritime businesses are thriving. They might as well be the local rulers.

Her mother is the head of a bodyguard agency that develops weapons, runs several islands, and is known in private as the ruler of the seas.

Her father may be a lowly county magistrate, but he's the richest minor official around.

As for her, she's the youngest daughter of the family. Since women aren't allowed to hold office, she spends her days sleeping and eating. She practically has no other talents.

If she has one redeeming quality, it's that she likes giving to the poor, though she doesn't just hand out money. People have to work for their wages.

She's earned a reputation as a kind young lady in the surrounding villages, though she's still a rich landowner's daughter.

Her whole family thinks their youngest daughter is so kind and adorable that she ought to enter the palace and become empress. But she wasn't even eligible for the selection.

Her family was so furious they cursed the emperor and crown prince every day without the least bit of fear.

They only stopped when the court got a new female emperor.

But Lu Ling knew perfectly well how carefree it was to be a rich landowner's daughter.

She could open a workshop one day and a shop the next, bringing prosperity to the whole street and peace and comfort to its residents. In her spare time, she could visit the brothels to listen to music, drink, and spend money improving her sisters' lives. It was a lot of fun.

Most importantly, she couldn't let her family find out that she liked women. But she couldn't spend her whole life alone, either.

So she secretly asked around for women with similar tastes, planning to keep one at home and build a little family.

After all, she had plenty of money.

But she never expected to actually find someone at a brothel.

A woman who was exactly her type.

Cool and beautiful, with the looks of a celebrity.

She'd apparently been a disgraced official's concubine before being sold to this little place in Haicheng. She had a bit of a temper, though, and had already beaten up the owner twice. Furious, the owner sold her for a pittance of five taels.

Without a second thought, Lu Ling bought her. She paid a hundred times the price, then had someone beat the owner up. Three meals a day, sorted.

She brought the beauty home and took good care of her injuries.

Unfortunately, the beauty had lost her memory. She didn't remember who she was, and was cold and standoffish toward Lu Ling.

All the servants in the estate felt Lu Ling was being treated unfairly.

Only Lu Ling knew she'd fallen hard for her.

She loved this crazy beauty.

She told her all sorts of interesting stories every day, and gradually the beauty stopped making a fuss and began to look on her more kindly. Just when Lu Ling thought she'd won the beauty's heart,

the beauty, now with her memories back, suddenly became clearheaded one day and asked for money.

At first it was a hundred taels, and Lu Ling gave it to her.

Then a thousand taels, then one million, two million, and finally ten million taels. (To fund an army.)

And every time she took the money, she disappeared.

Only then did Lu Ling belatedly realize that her wife had someone else.

Finally, one day, her wife really did run away.

Her ten million taels went up in smoke, and worse, her wife was gone.

Heartbroken, Lu Ling fell gravely ill. Afterward, she decided to forget the woman who'd swindled her out of ten million taels, seal off her heart, and swear off love.

But then the sea bandits attacked Haicheng.

The local garrison fled, and her family's wealth was about to be looted.

Suddenly, a hundred thousand heavenly soldiers gathered in Haicheng. They saved the city, and the reigning empress arrived at the Lu residence, frightening all sixty-some members of the family into trembling silence.

Then the empress softly called out, "Father-in-law, mother-in-law. I am your daughter-in-law, whom you have never met."

"I have come to bring my wife, Ling'er, into the palace."

The entire Lu family: ???

Later, Lu Ling discovered that the beauty she'd kept outside the family home was the reigning empress.

More importantly, when she entered the palace, she became empress. She was the only one in the harem.

Only then did she realize: she'd really become the empress after all.

Theme: Rise from the ashes in adversity