Rising to Power with the Talent System

[Contemporary Romance Column: After Online Dating My Secret Crush] is complete and ready to read. Please add my upcoming novel [My Daughter Can't Possibly Be a Drama Queen] to your favorites! Blurb below.

Blurb:

Du Niaoniao, a human resources director, transmigrates to ancient times and becomes a delicate, lovestruck wallflower from a fallen family.

Her parents died young. At home, she has a frail, sickly grandmother and a kindhearted younger sister who is blind. To top it all off, a bully has come to force her into marriage.

Du Niaoniao wakes up on a creaky wooden bed and looks at the shabby window lattice and the mottled, soot-black walls...

What kind of start is this, with drafts coming in from every side?

"Ding! Host binding complete. Match job seekers with employers, and the Talent System will lead you to the pinnacle of life."

Du Niaoniao's eyes light up. "Isn't this my old line of work? I can do this."

With the System bound to her, Du Niaoniao gains the ability to see at a glance what talents people have and what kind of background businesses come from.

She first recruits the bully to work for her, then starts in the county town. With her help, a restaurant hires an excellent chef and its business thrives.

Displaced people struggling to feed themselves find work they can live on, giving their families hope.

A talented general, long overlooked, returns to court and the battlefield to win glory.

She herself makes a fortune and earns System rewards by the handful.

Later, a shop called Smart Direct Hiring opens in Bianliang, earning renown throughout the Great Song. There, no job goes unfilled, and no talent goes undiscovered.

The emperor comes to see it for himself and nods in approval, stroking his beard. "This woman has great potential."

Du Niaoniao is appointed to serve as an official at court. With bold, sweeping reforms, she overhauls the ossified civil service examination system and, quite by accident, ushers in a golden age of talent, producing the greatest list of examination graduates in history.

This is how later generations record Du Niaoniao's life.

She was the first female official of the Great Song, a pillar of the state through the Jing and Wu reigns, and a renowned reformer, politician, and military strategist.

She was the only civil official in the Song dynasty to be granted the titles of Grand Tutor and Grand Preceptor during her lifetime.

It was her reforms that brought forth a succession of great talents and made possible the unprecedented golden age of a unified Great Song. History remembers her as the greatest chancellor of all time.

Tao Jie, Vice Minister of Rites, is refined and elegant, with a reserved, dignified bearing. Beneath his humble exterior lies a cool and profound nature. He is the man of every noblewoman's dreams in Bianliang.

All the world admires him.

At first, Tao Jie thinks Du Niaoniao admires him just as much as everyone else.

Only after they become colleagues at court does he realize that he is the only one who has fallen for her.

Tao Jie: May I win the goddess's heart, and may we love and trust each other without doubt.

A seemingly sweet, soft heroine who is really a career-driven queen * A seemingly refined, scholarly hero who is really a cunning fox of a nobleman

Reader's Guide:

She starts out as a commoner and later enters the court. The romance is lighthearted and slow-burn, and the hero falls for her on his own. 30% of the novel is protected from spoilers for 24 hours.

Highly recommended completed contemporary romance: [After Online Dating My Secret Crush]

Secret love comes true / Online dating identity revealed / The hero chases his wife to win her back / Both leads are each other's first love / Happy ending

1. In college, Leng Xia did all sorts of things to pursue Jiang Kai, only to end up passing through his world without a trace.

Years later, they meet again at work. He is still breathtakingly handsome, now with the calm, steady composure of a successful man.

Her long-dormant heart blossoms like a weed, and Leng Xia gathers the courage to pursue him. She confesses twice in a row, only to receive Jiang Kai's polite but indifferent rejection: "Sorry, we're not right for each other."

Only then does Leng Xia realize that effort alone can't make everything work out.

Her youthful dream is shattered for good, and she decisively deletes the man from WeChat.

2. Jiang Kai has an online gaming friend he's known for years, a gentle light in his dreary life.

On the night he's preparing a birthday surprise for his friend, he receives a WeChat message from Leng Xia, the colleague he once turned down:

"I'm sorry for troubling you all this time. I won't bother you again. I hope everything goes well for you."

To Jiang Kai, it's just an ordinary message.

With a cool, handsome face worthy of a movie star, he was the famous campus heartthrob in college. After graduation, he became a finance-world idol, with admirers constantly at his heels.

Even after Leng Xia blocked him, he gave it little thought. He only hesitated slightly when someone mentioned that the day in question was also Leng Xia's birthday.

Later, the online gaming friend he longed for but couldn't have suddenly disappeared. On her social media account, he happened upon the pain and little moments of her years-long secret crush on her dream man.

That message was Leng Xia's goodbye to a decade of secret love, and the start of his long journey to win her back.

#I rejected my online dating partner twice in real life#

#Can I still have a sweet romance?#

Upcoming novel [My Daughter Can't Possibly Be a Drama Queen]. Please add it to your favorites!

As the heir to a top-tier wealthy family, Nan Ge is strikingly beautiful, poised, and composed, but she has no interest in marriage. Just as she's planning to get around the marriage her family arranged and have a child without a husband, her five-year-old daughter arrives from more than a decade in the future.

The little girl is sweet and adorable, breathtakingly beautiful even at her young age, and talks in a babyish voice. She's also extremely crafty and will put on a whole act at the drop of a hat.

Nan Ge doesn't know whether to laugh or cry. She can't help asking, "Sweetie, tell Mommy honestly. Is your dad a drama queen?"

"Yeah! Daddy's really good at acting." The girl excitedly points at a handsome, newly famous top-tier star on the TV.

"Mommy likes watching Daddy act too. She even bought him a film company and gave him a huge villa. At night, they play monster wrestling in the swimming pool, and they won't let me join. Hmph."

Nan Ge: ...Her pupils shake in shock!!!

The child's father is her fiance's cousin!

The woman she becomes in the future feels like a stranger. What on earth happens over the next decade?!

*

Lu Jingyi is the heir to the Lu family, but he leaves behind a trillion-dollar fortune to enter show business. With his impossibly handsome looks and mature acting, he wins countless fans and becomes the hottest new star.

But deep in his heart is a boundary he can't bring himself to cross.

Until one evening at a banquet, he sees the person from his dreams walking toward him.

Nan Ge smiles with reserve and asks politely, "Xiaosuimiao Kindergarten is rehearsing a parent-child fairy tale play. Would the famous Lu be interested in making a guest appearance?"

Lu Jingyi: ...

Not long afterward, the man is photographed on a castle lawn, lifting a little girl high in his arms and letting her ride on his back. His eyes are so tender they could drip water.

The whole internet erupts!

The hashtags [Lu Jingyi Secretly Married with a Daughter] and [The Child's Mother] explode across the trending lists.

His management company tells him to come out and clarify.

In front of the flashing cameras, the man's long lashes droop. Even his sharp jawline seems to radiate grievance. "It'd be great if it were true. I wish someone would give me a proper title."

The public speculates wildly about what powerful person could possibly have turned down Lu.

Nan Ge, watching in front of the TV: ...

So the drama queen's manipulative act really is hereditary.

At first, Nan Ge's impression of Lu Jingyi is that he's a quiet, reserved, handsome man.

Later...

He's got enough stamina to make her legs weak, is intensely jealous, even gets jealous of their daughter, and is so addicted to acting that he puts on a show even in bed. If his performance isn't good enough, he's made to do it all over again.

Nan Ge goes limp as a puddle of mud, unable even to stand.

The man holds her by the waist and patiently murmurs in her ear:

"Sweetie, just hold on a little longer. You don't want to add another scene tomorrow night, do you?"

Theme: Have the courage to overcome adversity and rewrite your life.