After the Villainous Emperor Dragged Me into the Palace

A paranoid, scheming villainous emperor male lead x a female lead with a clear goal: all she wants is to become the Empress Dowager.

Upcoming novel: "The Cannon-Fodder Female Lead Gives Up"

As a veteran employee in the quick transmigration world, Jiang Yingyue had gone from cannon fodder to supporting character to villain, topping the mission rankings for countless years without ever getting a bad review. She thought she could finally retire in triumph and enjoy a happy life, but the System bundled her up and sent her into three thousand small worlds. All in the name of repairing worldviews and maintaining world peace...

The System nervously explained everything, then looked at Jiang Yingyue's dark expression and hurried to add:

Boss, this time is different...

This time, you are the center of the story.

Even the future male lead will have to depend on you to survive.

This time, you'll be pampered and privileged, with beauty and power, and the adoration of everyone.

Most importantly, it really couldn't find anyone else capable of repairing this world. Sob sob sob.

At that, Jiang Yingyue kicked it flying. "If I finish this mission and you still won't let me retire, I'll burn this whole System space to the ground!"

Actually, it wasn't the System that chose you. It was this world that chose you.

Xiao Cijing was the least favored prince in the imperial palace. His birth mother was lowborn, so no one liked him from childhood, and the emperor deliberately ignored him while others bullied him at will. From the moment he was old enough to understand, he kept a low profile, played the obsequious underling, and concealed his sharpness. He was calculating and ruthless. At a palace banquet, to preserve his reputation as a good-for-nothing, he presented an embarrassingly bad love poem to Jiang Yingyue, the prime minister's daughter and the apple of everyone's eye, seeking her protection. As soon as he finished reciting it, stifled laughter rose all around him.

Being laughed at was already an everyday occurrence for him.

It should have been no different this time.

But the young girl, not yet past her early teens, seated at the banquet unexpectedly peeked out from behind her embroidered fan. Her lovely face was radiant, her beautiful eyes shimmering like water. She lowered her head with a faint smile, as if a hundred flowers had bloomed. Under her gaze, Xiao Cijing felt ashamed of his own appearance and, for a moment, thought he was looking at a celestial beauty in a painting.

But the words that fell from this smiling fairy's lips chilled him to the bone.

She said, "How shameless."

It was only a short sentence, hardly worth mentioning compared with the insults he'd suffered before. Yet, inexplicably, it was the first time he'd ever felt rejected.

So later, after Xiao Cijing successfully ascended the throne, the first thing he did was have the already betrothed Jiang Yingyue dragged into the imperial palace.

One-on-one romance

Probably a wish-fulfillment novel.

Note: The female lead is a seasoned old hand who has been through more things than anyone can count. Her beauty and natural ability to attract admirers are maxed out. She's extremely rational and sees everything from an omniscient perspective, and she loves acting. She feels awful if she goes even one day without putting on a show.

Content warning: The male lead is not a good person. He's very bad, selfish, has few scruples, and doesn't care about other people. He's ruthless and a little crazy.

I haven't thought of any other warnings yet. I'll add them later.

Theme: Everything you've been through will become a badge of honor once you grow strong.