The Little Maid's Fortune-Building Life

[Coming soon] "A Lazy Routine in the Imperial Harem." Please add it to your reading list! (I'd also be ever so grateful if you added my other novels to your list: "He Came from the Depths of Starlight" and "Daylight.")

After transmigrating into the past, Yu Cui becomes a little maid serving tea and water in a grand household. She says, "With a pocket dimension at my disposal, I'm as steady as can be."

Goal: Save money, buy her freedom, and marry a handsome husband.

Big Sis has money, Big Sis loves you, Big Sis will take care of you.

Reader's Note

* The title and blurb both say she's a little maid, so she'll spend plenty of time as one. The story includes a body-swap-style substitution and scapegoating plotline, so please consider carefully if that's not your thing.

* I call the style lighthearted because I feel my writing and prose don't meet the standards of serious historical fiction. Personally, I think serious historical fiction should be solemn and have an old-fashioned feel, so I chose lighthearted instead.

* The sweet romance tag means the romantic storyline has no angst.

* You don't need to tell me if you drop the story. More notes may be added later.

Blurb for "A Lazy Routine in the Imperial Harem"

She is the least noticeable daughter of the Yun family, living in constant fear under her stepmother's control. All she hopes for is a good marriage, where she and her husband will be devoted to each other. If possible, she'd like to bring her birth mother out of the Yun household so she no longer has to serve tea to her stepmother and work as a maid!

But fate is fickle. Her elder half-sister is no longer able to bear children, and the family needs one of their daughters to enter the palace and win the emperor's favor, preserving the family's glory. She is forced to part from the man she loves, and from then on, life in the palace is cold and merciless.

From a lowly palace attendant to the empress, then to the empress dowager who rules from behind the curtain, she walks a bitter path. She loses a great deal, but also gains many things she wants, leaving her with no regrets in the end.

This is the story of the legendary Empress Yun, and also the heroine of "A Turmoil of Beauties in the Imperial Harem." Beautiful women abound, and handsome men are everywhere.

The beautiful women are all villains, and the handsome men are all backup options. The heroine's halo lets her crush all comers! Wei Lan read the first few dozen chapters and couldn't bear to continue. They made her toes curl with embarrassment, so she skipped straight to the ending. The heroine kills the emperor, installs the three-year-old prince as emperor, makes her lover regent, and becomes the empress dowager ruling from behind the curtain. The two of them hold power together and live happily ever after, never doubting each other.

Wei Lan: ...

If she'd known she'd transmigrate into this book, she'd have forced herself to finish it even if it killed her. She regrets it so much she wants to bang her head against a wall! Everyone in the harem except the heroine is evil, and they'll all become stepping stones for the heroine to level up. The identity she's transmigrated into is a dancer at the Imperial Music Bureau, and the first cannon-fodder villain to appear in the novel. She only read the first twenty-five chapters. This character appears in chapter ten and dies in chapter thirteen. The only reason the author included her was to warn the heroine about the cruelty of the harem, setting her on the path to compete for the emperor's favor and become the legendary Empress Yun.

Wei Lan: ...

She can't enter the emperor's harem, and she has no way to leave the palace. So she'll just join the late emperor's harem and become the emperor's stepmother! At least that way, she'll save her life!!!

It's great to lie flat, wonderful to slack off. Whoever wants to fight can go ahead. Just don't disturb her retirement!

Theme: Learn to stand on your own feet