The Delicate Maiden Is a Master of Theatrics

[Serial novel: The Duchess Is a Black Lotus. Please add it to your collection, thank you.]

After being condemned as a demon empress by the ministers and sentenced to death, Pei Xingyun was reborn and became a kitchen maid in the residence of Commander-in-Chief Min Ran.

Min Ran was a revered God of War whose name was enough to frighten children into silence at night.

Pei Xingyun kept a low profile and minded her manners in the residence, hoping to save enough money to leave and enjoy her retirement. But the commander-in-chief, who found women crying and carrying on troublesome and thought they overanalyzed everything, became entangled with her...

Pei Xingyun tripped and fell, her eyes stinging with tears from the pain. Min Ran crouched in front of her and waited for her tears to fall. A long while passed, but nothing happened.

He reached out and poked the corner of her eye. When she finally shed a tear, he smiled with satisfaction.

Pei Xingyun thought: "You bastard!"

Min Ran asked, "Yun Yun, why aren't you wearing the gold bangle I gave you?"

The gold bangle was big enough to use as a wheel. Pei Xingyun had long since melted it down into gold bars. Lowering her eyes, she smiled shyly. "The gift the commander-in-chief gave me is so precious that I want to keep it all to myself. I don't want to share it with anyone."

Min Ran thought: "Yun Yun cares about me so much."

The next day, Pei Xingyun received even more gold, silver, and jewels.

#On the difference between how men and women think, and how the heroine uses her acting skills and clever talk to win over a straight-laced man who overthinks everything#

Alternate history. Please don't nitpick the historical details.

One-on-one romance, a lighthearted and sweet story

Coming soon: How Much of a Black Lotus Is the Duchess? Blurb:

Ming Yi transmigrated into the body of the Duchess of State.

Above her was a spiteful mother-in-law. Below her was a whole heap of unruly children, both legitimate and illegitimate. The back courtyard was packed with the Duke's favorites.

The Duke had won countless military honors and was greatly favored by the emperor. When word came that he'd been wounded on the battlefield, the emperor even left the palace to welcome him home in person.

Ming Yi cried harder than the rain on the night Yiping went begging for money.

After crying, Ming Yi went back to her old ways: only caring about praying to Buddha, swallowing her anger when the concubines bullied her, acting timid and obedient in front of her mother-in-law, and tending to her husband day and night.

Before long, her husband's wound worsened and he died. Her mother-in-law fell ill and soon followed him to the grave, while a concubine, overcome with grief, took her own life for love...

A censor impeached Ming Yi, accusing her of being a murderer. The emperor tossed the memorial aside and casually found an excuse to exile the censor to a bitterly cold land.

The powerful families of the capital expressed their sympathy for Ming Yi while secretly looking forward to the day the Duke's residence would collapse.

Who could have guessed that years later, the Duke's residence would still be in favor, and its title would even become hereditary in perpetuity?

#The Duchess, with Buddhist scriptures in one hand and a butcher's knife in the other#

#The Duchess planted a whole prairie at her husband's coffin#

Content warning: The heroine has no heart. She's promiscuous and will stop at nothing to get what she wants.

Not a pure relationship.

Alternate setting. Please don't nitpick the details.

Theme: Having weathered life's hardships, yet still believing in love