How Did I Accidentally Rise to the Highest Rank?

1.

Zheng Jinghe woke up one day to discover that her cheap father had been handing out matchmaking notices all over the capital, hoping to secure her happiness for the rest of her life. The whole city now knew that she was a foolish girl no one would marry.

Everyone waited to laugh at her family. Even certain princes and nobles had heard about it and privately laughed themselves silly. But no one expected that, before long, all the matchmaking notices would disappear overnight.

And somehow, the foolish girl had managed to climb into the Crown Prince's good graces, transforming herself into the darling of the Eastern Palace.

Everyone put it down to good luck, saying she had stumbled into an incredible stroke of fortune. When word came that the Crown Prince had been imprisoned and might be deposed at any moment, they were even more certain of it.

Some even cursed her as a jinx, saying she had brought bad luck to the gentle Crown Prince, making trouble for him as soon as she entered the Eastern Palace.

But who could have guessed that, in no time at all, the Crown Prince who was supposed to be deposed would return to court, while the powerful aristocratic ministers who had once dominated the government would fall one after another?

And the mastermind behind it all was the very person they had mocked as a joke in the capital.

Some still refused to believe it. They said she had only succeeded by riding on the Crown Prince's and the Chancellor's coattails, and that the real credit belonged to someone else.

But soon, what left them utterly dumbfounded was that the foolish girl who had supposedly climbed over others to get ahead was appointed by the Crown Prince as an imperial recruiter, sent out among the people to find talented candidates for government service.

Then she spearheaded reforms to the imperial examinations, changing the course of the realm. Talented people emerged in droves and flocked to the capital to serve the court. The once-rotten Great Zhou was transformed overnight.

That wasn't all. As a cold wave struck, the Northern Hu grew ever more intent on invading the south. Yet the former laughingstock they had mocked managed to root out the Northern Hu's spies within Great Zhou, foiling their scheme.

A wave of civil-service exams for all, a wave of martial arts training for all, and the widespread promotion of cotton cultivation spared countless people from hunger and cold, saving countless lives.

They watched her go from a laughingstock to one of the highest officials in the realm. In the end, she became someone everyone hoped to follow.

Later, someone asked her how she had made it this far. Was it ambition, luck, or something else?

Zheng Jinghe simply raised the letter in her hand, her eyes smiling. “Because of this.”

It was this letter that had brought her here. And it was the person who had written it who made her truly put down roots in this land.

At first, all she had wanted was to save one person.

2.

At the end of his life, the person Zhou Huaiyu couldn't bear to leave behind was his pen pal, whom he had never met. Even bedridden with a serious illness, her writing still carried a stubborn, unyielding spirit, like the most inconspicuous patch of weeds in a corner of the Eastern Palace, somehow managing again and again to stop him from taking his own life.

But now, he was tired.

As he lay in a pool of blood, a sudden gale swept through, and a sheet of snow-white paper drifted down, staining red. The strong handwriting he had once known had grown faint and shaky. It contained just one sentence: “Can we meet, just once?”

Zhou Huaiyu raised his bloodied hand and managed only the first stroke of the word “yes” before it fell limply back down.

In an unfamiliar era, far beyond his knowledge, the sounds of emergency treatment filled a hospital room. The jumble of machines suddenly stopped, their readings dropping to zero.

When the girl lying in the hospital bed woke again, she found herself surrounded by unfamiliar faces in a completely unfamiliar place.

[The only way to save him is to strengthen his will to live. His life force is only at 20 right now. Once his will to live drops below 10, he could repeat the same tragedy at any moment.]

[Why do you want to save him? Without him, you could do so much better with my help. Is it really just because of those few letters you exchanged across time?]

“...”

“Yes. It's because of those letters.”

Without those letters, she might have given up long ago.

Reader's Guide:

1. Happy ending, mutual salvation. Plot and romance are given equal weight.

2. Fictional setting, very loosely based on history, with a mix of different dynasties. The author's worldbuilding is extensive, so read with caution if that bothers you.

3. The political scheming is at an elementary-school level. Just enjoy it. If there are plot or logic problems, it's purely because the author's IQ isn't up to the task. Please be kind, haha.

The following is an upcoming novel

Help! A terrifying ghost is obsessed with me

Unlucky Chuchun was scared to death in the middle of the night by a white dress on the balcony.

When she opened her eyes again, she had transmigrated into the body of a gambling addict who had somehow hit the jackpot. She now held the deed to an old mansion deep in the mountains, an inheritance left by some unknown relative.

Chuchun stood at the foot of the desolate mountain, swallowing with difficulty.

She truly didn't want to take advantage of this windfall, but the original owner had been so poor that her debt collectors were practically holding a knife to her throat.

If she wanted to stay alive, she needed money.

And this mansion was a gift from the heavens.

Rumor had it that the old mansion contained a vault filled with countless gold and silver treasures. Only the person holding the key could open it and claim what was inside.

As the key's holder, and someone buried in debt, Chuchun had no way to resist the temptation.

She planned to take the money and run, but she never imagined she wouldn't get the money, would lose both the deed and the key, and would be trapped inside the gloomy mansion, unable to leave.

At night, she could even hear strange noises drawing closer.

Chuchun thought she was doomed again. She had already decided how to end things when a Taoist priest suddenly burst into the mansion.

With an aura of righteousness and a peachwood sword in hand, he told her not to be afraid. The mansion was crawling with evil spirits, and ordinary people often wandered inside by mistake. He had come specifically to rescue her.

After all the torment, Chuchun was exhausted. His words were like a lifeline, and she wanted to cling to the Taoist priest every moment until she could escape the haunted mansion.

But the priest had been injured before he arrived and needed time to meditate and recover before he could break the evil enchantment. Chuchun eagerly helped him heal, and as they spent every day together, the two became close friends.

At last, Chuchun gathered the courage to ask him, “Priest, have you seen anyone else in this mansion?”

The priest shook his head, and Chuchun assumed she was just being paranoid.

But as night fell, Chuchun felt her body grow heavier and heavier as she lay on the bed. Sticky breaths brushed against her neck, and a cold touch crept up from beneath her skirt.

She suddenly opened her eyes and saw, horrified, someone pinning her down.

Long hair like a waterfall covered her entire field of vision. A bloodless face stared straight at her. A face as beautiful as a celestial being now looked utterly terrifying, covered in horrifying scratch marks, with trails of blood running beneath the eyes.

The familiar features she had grown used to seeing these past few days now looked terrifyingly strange, as if he were about to devour her alive. Chuchun covered her mouth, too afraid to make a sound.

.

Huai Xu had lately felt that something was wrong with his body. His injuries should have healed quickly, but they still hadn't improved and seemed to be getting worse.

Especially after meditating through the night, his body felt weightless, while his heart pounded like a drum, making him uneasy.

He assumed the mansion's yin energy was too strong and didn't think much of it. But the next time he saw Miss Chuchun, he noticed that she looked at him more and more strangely.

Was she... afraid of him?

Why?

Theme: Believe that everything will get better