Forced to Become an Imperial Consort (Qing Dynasty)

When Maru realized she had died and been reborn as a low-ranking palace maid in the Qing dynasty, she was devastated.

This was bad! Palace maids in Qing dramas always had dangerous jobs. Kneeling as punishment, slaps in the face, beatings to death, execution by imperial order: none of those sounded good.

She'd entered the wrong line of work in her previous life and died young. Maru didn't want to make the same mistake in this one.

But now she was already stuck in the palace. It seemed too late to change careers.

There was nothing for it. Since she was here, she had to make the best of it. Maru could only lie low for a while.

Later, a palace maid who got a special meal every few days belatedly realized that her little life was actually going pretty well.

Her cheeks had even gotten rounder...

Oh, it turned out her family had connections in the Imperial Kitchen! She was a palace insider, after all.

Then Maru learned that as long as she didn't bring trouble on herself, she should be able to live comfortably in the palace, with plenty to eat and wear.

Now that she had something to look forward to, Maru worked hard, hoping to save enough money as soon as possible and retire outside the palace once she had enough years of service.

She never expected that the former office worker would be so good at her job that she'd outwork all her peers and earn a raise and promotion to become a first-class maid in the palace of the newly arrived Concubine Tong Jia.

Wait! Emperor Kangxi, a consort surnamed Tong Jia, and the original owner's family happened to be surnamed Uya...

!!! No way! Could she be the fierce Consort De who rose from the ranks of palace maids and gave birth to the next emperor?

Maru had this to say: No! She wanted to be a palace maid, not a consort! She wanted to retire outside the palace, not have a baby! Ahhh, you dog of an emperor, stay away from me!

Theme: No matter what difficulties you face, keep living well.