I Became a Princess at the End of the Ming Dynasty

[Author's Note: There's a lot of extra information here, so I recommend turning it off. There's not much romance, but what there is is concentrated in a few sections. Also... the writing is rather slapdash and not very good. Why have so many people started subscribing lately?]

Su Ming transmigrated. The good news: she became a princess. The bad news: a princess of a fallen kingdom.

Following the usual novel formula, just as she thought she was about to enter a passionate, tragic romance with a prince from an enemy kingdom, her emperor father suddenly came at her with a sword, intent on cutting her down. Luckily, Su Ming knocked him unconscious with an inkstone the very next second.

She nearly flipped her father off. "I didn't transmigrate here just to let you get me killed."

To keep her lunatic father from hurting anyone in a fit of madness, Su Ming quickly hid her younger sister away. Then her father disappeared again.

"What's today's date?"

"The eighteenth day of the third month of the seventeenth year of Chongzhen."

Su Ming had no choice but to accept the truth: she had transmigrated into Princess Changping's body, and the late Ming Dynasty story she was stuck in was set to hell mode.

So Su Ming hurried to the crooked tree on Coal Hill, where she smacked Chongzhen with a brick. "Father, let me borrow your written order."

There was no dashing, wicked prince from an enemy kingdom. Instead, Su Ming faced crowds of desperate, bedraggled rebels. Should she cross the river south, or defend the borders? In these chaotic times, countless schemes, both overt and covert, were being played out. Beneath the blades, who would become an innocent soul lost to the dead? Before long, rumors spread that the Crown Prince had already gone south, while Emperor Chongzhen had vanished without a trace.

"Save the Ming Dynasty?"

"It's already rotten."

"Seize the throne?"

"What does the throne have to do with me?"

"Then why are you doing this?"

"To save people."

A gentle, clear-headed, slightly goofy princess x a meticulous young eunuch

Reading guide:

The male lead is a real eunuch. Plot-focused, with a slow-burn romance and not much romantic content. A one-on-one relationship from beginning to end.

The male lead is very, very weak early on. The female lead is career-minded. The male lead is completely lovestruck by her, completely lovestruck. If that's not your thing, please don't read.

Ensemble cast.

Please don't take the novel too seriously; refer to real history for the facts. Some elements are fictionalized, and some are based on references. References are usually listed in the author's notes.

Theme: When the country thrives, the people suffer; when it falls, the people suffer.