My Special Tricks for Getting Promoted

What kind of person is Cheng Xi?

Official A: Someone with something wrong with their head!

Official B: Someone nobody wants to offend!

Official C: Someone who leaves everyone with psychological scars!

Official D: Someone who has completely risen above lowbrow interests!

Officials A, B, and C (taking a step back): There's something off about you!

Official D: Aren't you saying his interests are completely different from everyone else's?

After transmigrating to ancient times, women were dependent on men and could barely be sure they would survive from one day to the next.

At first, Cheng Xi planned to disguise herself as a man and sit the imperial examinations. But a major exam-fraud case suddenly broke out, and the body searches became exceptionally strict.

Having only earned the lowest scholarly degree, Cheng Xi thought it over and went straight into the family business, becoming a private secretary to an official.

Haven't you heard?

Shaoxing secretaries are the best under heaven.

Follow your patron and rise to great heights.

One day, you may earn the emperor's favor,

And become an official yourself.

The story of a female chancellor's rise

(Cheng Xi: What? I'm no chancellor, I'm the regent!)

After years of navigating the tides of power, Secretary Cheng painstakingly climbed to the summit, always on tenterhooks × The Devil Cheng seized control of the entire court by making sure everyone who crossed her was done for √

An alternate world! An alternate world! An alternate world! The Great Yu dynasty blends elements from the Tang, Ming, and Song.

Little scenes

A certain relative: As long as I can drag them to hell with me, I don't care if I die!

Cheng Xi: Let me see if there's a crime that gets your whole family executed without implicating your entire clan!

A certain relative: ...

A former patron: This man must not be allowed to live! Think of a way, whatever the cost!

Secretary Cheng Xi: We can start by doing this, and then do that.

A former patron: If this gets discovered, won't my entire clan be implicated?

Secretary Cheng Xi: Didn't you say, whatever the cost?

A former patron: Aren't you afraid of dying?

Secretary Cheng Xi: Of course I am, but our dynasty doesn't punish ten generations of a family. That would only get the secretaries and advisers, right?

A former patron: ...

After being promoted, Cheng Xi reflected: I have drifted for so long; for ten years, I have repaid deep kindness with betrayal. In life and death, my friends are my teachers.

Her classmates, fellow degree holders, and colleagues (trembling): This woman really does mean it when she says friends and teachers share life and death!

[Important] There is no setup where the heroine is strong but the men are stronger. Cheng Xi is the strongest carbon-based life-form on the planet, the head of the cabinet, and rules Great Yu for decades. History records her as “Emperor Regent Yu.” A lighthearted power-progression power fantasy.

The heroine openly reveals that she is a woman of her own accord.

The bonus chapters contain quite a bit of pairing content (clearly marked), so choose according to your preferences.

P.S.

Although the chapters are linked by cases that give them their titles, this is not a detective story. The investigations themselves won't be described in great detail. Instead, there's more focus on the power struggles behind them, making this closer to historical political intrigue. It's a lighthearted power fantasy, with no heavy, somber narrative.

[Content warning]

(Although I think the blurb already makes this clear, I'll say it explicitly anyway):

The heroine often acts like a complete menace. Her moral compass is extremely flexible, her reasoning is always self-consistent, and she never doubts herself.

As a female politician, she is a politician first and a woman second. So there won't be anything a male politician can do that she can't. When she sends people to their deaths or treats them as tools, she won't hesitate, and she certainly won't feel sorry for them. Like Cao Cao and Catherine the Great: “It is your honor to die for me.”

Don't judge the heroine by the moral standards expected of ordinary modern women. If you can't accept that, just click the X.

(Characters do not represent the author. Any negative comments directed at the author will be deleted.)

Theme: Study hard and work diligently.