From Dowry Maid to Imperial Consort

The latest big news in the Great Zhou: the Li family's ancestral graves in Yangzhou are sending up green smoke. The Li family's eldest son risked his life to save Zhao Jinyu, the young child of the Grand Princess Who Pacifies the Nation.

Zhao Jinyu repays the favor with his life, asking to marry a daughter of the Li family.

And the lowly Li family has made a joke that isn't really a joke: they've stuffed local Yangzhou specialties into the dowry!

Dong Shuang is one such specialty: a Yangzhou lean horse!

After dying suddenly from overwork, Dong Shuang figures out who she is and calmly accepts her fate.

After all, she's landed a job at a major company:

The emperor dotes on his nephew and granted Zhao Jinyu the title of Marquis of Anle early on. The company will never be at risk of going under!

Her direct supervisor, the newly made Marchioness, is kind and wealthy, and secretly gives her ten taels a month.

The big boss, the marquis, is handsome and rich. Behave yourself and follow the rules, and he'll reward you!

So she dutifully serves the Marquis and Marchioness, her personal gods of wealth.

The second year, she protects the Marchioness through the safe delivery of twins, a boy and a girl, and is given a thousand taels of silver and a hundred mu of farmland. Her monthly salary doubles!

The fourth year, the marquis makes something of himself by passing the imperial examinations and becoming a proper jinshi scholar. A generous reward!

The sixth year, she has a daughter. The Marchioness is one step ahead of her and voluntarily returns her contract of servitude, elevating her to a favored concubine. The marquis rewards her with ten thousand taels of silver and three shops.

Just when she thinks she'll go on living a wealthy life like this, a palace upheaval changes everything: the Marquis of Anle turns out to be the Ninth Prince, who was believed to have died young.

He is acknowledged by the imperial family and becomes crown prince.

Li Yujiao's humble background comes under attack, and women like Dong Shuang are condemned as seductresses who bewitched the marquis into placing only third in the examinations.

Dong Shuang is furious.

Do you know how hard it is to find a job with a rich boss who grew up surrounded by love?

She steps in to help the crown princess secure her position. Once the crown princess becomes empress and rules the realm, Dong Shuang receives her reward: the title of Noble Consort!

Dong Shuang: "..."

Damn it!

Reader's guide: 1. The heroine treats this as a job. She doesn't compete for things, but will pursue what benefits her, with the goal of getting one raise after another.

2. She supports the empress and will encourage the opening of a women's school.

Theme: The sweat and blood you put in will turn into a bountiful harvest