A Maid's Daily Life in Bianjing

My new novel, The Empress Rises to Great Heights, is now underway and updating regularly! Ji Shanying, who died suddenly from overwork, transmigrates and opens her eyes in Bianjing, the capital of the Northern Song. The good news: she’s in a prestigious marquis’s household, where bells ring and fine food is plentiful. The bad news: she’s only a kitchen girl serving the third branch, and a born servant expected to toil for the whole family. A gambling-addicted father, a brother ruled by love, a gravely ill mother, and a life in shambles. What a disastrous start. Born with a contract selling her into servitude, this real-life workhorse is at her breaking point. At five every morning, Ji Fumei grips her fire poker and gazes at the rising sun, eyes shining. Her goal: become a third-class maid. Time to get to work! One day, while out on an errand, she happens upon a group of people collecting protection money. The young man at their head has pale, cool-toned skin, long legs, and dazzling peach-blossom eyes. He’s so handsome she can’t look away. Ji Shanying can’t help thinking: Are all the little ruffians in Bianjing this good-looking? Pei Yunji is an orphan who grew up on the streets. He has a gang of underlings and is a well-known figure around Zhou Bridge. One day, while collecting protection money, he runs into a bright, beautiful young woman. She’s quick on her feet and astonishingly strong. With a bang, she slams someone else onto the counter, her smile bright as the morning sun. “Your business is more important,” Ji Shanying says, quick to read the room and exceedingly generous. “You go first.” Bianjing is prosperous, full of lively households. By the time Ji Shanying leaves the marquis’s residence, the boy has grown into a stalwart young man. He stands amid the dimming lantern light, tenderness filling his peach-blossom eyes. “Yunji may not be all-powerful, but when it comes to loving Shanying, nothing is beyond him.” A note for readers: Our goal is to make money, make money, and make a fortune! Family life, food and business, and rural life in a fictional Song dynasty, inspired by the social customs of the time. The heroine’s name comes from the line: “Spring gazes upon the mountain hall; the stones grow warm as moss sprouts.” My Weibo: @QueShangXinTouYa. Please follow me! Please add my books to your collections! My completed novels: The Noble Consort Is So Enchanting | The Noble Consort’s Wealth and Glory | The Noble Consort’s Favor Never Fades | Embracing the Flowing Light | The Noble Consort Is So Charming | The Noble Consort Is Truly Enchanting | A Ruyi Feast in the Northern Song | From Palace Maid to Empress | A Palace Maid’s Promotion Diary | Murder in a Yanjing Boudoir. Enjoy! Coming next: The Empress Rises to Great Heights. Please add it to your collections! The newly enthroned emperor is attacked, but a fishmonger’s daughter risks her life to save him, and he escapes unharmed. The fishmonger’s daughter uses her heroic deed to demand a reward, shamelessly insisting on entering the palace as Lady Yu. Sure enough, the emperor never summons her again. Everyone waits to laugh at her, but in a secluded palace courtyard they find a carefree beauty with skin like jade and an exquisite face. Jiang Yueya is a fishmonger’s daughter with no parents. By chance, she saves the emperor and goes from sparrow to phoenix in an instant. She can’t read a single character, has a hide like a fortress wall, and is vain, greedy, and lecherous. The moment she sees the young emperor, her eyes light up. “Your Majesty, where’s that wealth and glory you promised?” The new emperor disdains her as a commoner, and he also despises the desire she keeps stirring in him. Whenever he sees her graceful figure, he can hardly tear his eyes away. How could he let a fishmonger’s daughter have her way with him? One day, he hears that Consort De, born into a powerful family, has punished her, had her beaten, and confined her to her quarters. The emperor sits with a cold expression, reviewing memorials until midnight, but still can’t resist returning to Liuyun Palace. He expects to find her looking pitiful, tearfully complaining. Instead, he’s greeted by the mouthwatering aroma of grilled fish. The emperor: “...Aren’t you upset?” Jiang Yueya holds grilled fish in one hand and osmanthus wine in the other. Her round face is flushed, and her smiling eyes curve like crescent moons. “Good food, good sleep, a good life. What’s there to be upset about?” Everyone looks down on her and expects her to be banished to the Cold Palace. A year passes, then two, and instead they watch her rise higher and higher, enjoying unmatched favor. No one in the palace is more carefree or lives more comfortably than she does! Jiang Yueya: If I see it, I want it, and if I want it, I get it! Who says a fishmonger’s daughter can’t be a treasure? Theme: Stand on your own and build a prosperous life.