The Empress Rose to the Highest Office by Revising History

[Recommending my friend's novel, Raising Horses with a General I Picked Up, by Chun Yu, as well as my upcoming novels Tyrants Are Hard to Raise and My Favorite BE Couple Announced Their Relationship After Their Parenting Show Went Viral. Please add them to your reading list!]

Here's the blurb for this novel:

It was an utterly ordinary finals week. The diligent students studying in a certain university library closed their eyes, opened them again, and all transmigrated together.

Fujian was flooded, so the Agriculture students went south of the Yangtze to provide disaster relief. The harvest that year tripled.

The national economy was in a slump and the treasury was running dry, so the Business students were dispatched to major commercial cities. Within a few months, the economy recovered and the streets bustled with carriages and horses.

The Education students built a great Imperial Academy and brought learning to the people, teaching without discrimination. The Engineering students taught practical skills and spread scientific knowledge, and technology advanced by leaps and bounds...

And Jian Xin became the empress of the dynasty, forbidden to leave her inner quarters.

Her response: “Do you think independent women of the modern age are pushovers?”

Furious, she wrote ten policy proposals cursing the palace rules that kept women confined, citing historical texts and using the past to advise the present.

By chance, an old court historian found the ten proposals and was so moved his beard trembled three times. “A mastery of both literature and history, and a commitment to recording the truth! This is truly a work worthy of Heaven!”

Later, she compiled history while the court provided disaster relief, and compiled history while the court waged war. The head of the imperial harem had become, in practice, the head historian. And she held fast to an important virtue of the new generation: never forget your original aspirations.

Her schoolmate was in charge of guarding the palace gates.

Her schoolmate was in charge of the imperial horses.

And another schoolmate was in charge of imperial family affairs.

What was she waiting for? Farewell, dog emperor. Tonight, she was setting sail for distant shores.

-

Ji Mao suspects there's something supernatural going on in the palace these days.

For example, when an urgent military report arrived saying the Quanrong had launched a surprise attack at the border, his tutor, who usually fell ill at the slightest breeze, suddenly sprang onto a horse, grabbed the tiger tally, and charged northwest at the head of three hundred thousand troops.

Then there was the time he was attacked by assassins during his southern tour, and his burly cavalry general raised a huge saber against him, claiming he was “performing surgery.”

And his empress... there's no explaining her.

That night, Ji Mao finally finished reviewing the memorials submitted by his officials (the university students) and went to Guangfu Temple outside the city to burn incense and shake off his bad luck. Before his sedan even reached the ground, he heard an energetic beat coming from inside the temple.

“Boom, boom, boom, boom...”

Then a monk inside shouted, “All you worshippers at the back, raise your incense sticks! Let me see your hands!”

“Yeah!!!”

The monk: “DJ! Drop the beat!”

“Boom, boom, boom, boom...”

Ji Mao: “...”

Everyone's focused on getting things done. A ridiculous comedy set in a fictional dynasty, so don't overthink the historical details!

They're each other's only partners, one-on-one romance, and the male lead pursues the female lead and wins her over!

Upcoming novel: Tyrants Are Hard to Raise

Wan Wenxia transmigrates into a book, an old-fashioned romance novel called Raising a Tyrant: The Long Road to Winning Her Back.

As the title suggests, it's a story about a violent male lead who abuses the heroine physically and emotionally, then comes to his senses at the very end and embarks on a long road to win her back.

Good news: She's an insignificant female Nth-lead, far removed from the conflicts and content with an ordinary life.

Bad news: The heroine has quit, and the System, desperate to boost its performance stats, has dumped this glorious mission on her.

Damn it, what did she do wrong?!

That night, Wan Wenxia lay on the hard floor of the Cold Palace, closed her eyes, and looked peaceful. “Goodbye. Let me die an ordinary death on this cold night.”

The System: “Hey, guess what? You can't die!”

As long as she doesn't complete the mission, she'll be invulnerable to blades, bullets, illness, and injury, with a body as indestructible as a diamond.

She sat bolt upright on her deathbed. This kind of thing is possible?!

The System's sinister “Heh heh” echoed. The next second, she clutched her chest and spat out a mouthful of blood.

“Host's desire to win him over is extremely low. Issuing a warning.”

...Fine.

That night, when the tyrant boy, only eight years old, opened his door, he looked down and saw the even younger consort from next door crawling toward him, wiping blood from her lips, her hair in disarray.

A trail of blood followed behind her.

The boy tyrant's face turned deathly pale. “...”

[1]

Time passed, but her progress remained stubbornly stalled. With a rival about to overtake it and claim the top spot, the System paced anxiously in her mind. “Can you do this or not? Tell me, can you do it or not?!”

Wan Wenxia fell silent for a moment. She looked at the tyrant in front of her, who was barely as tall as her shoulder, and backed away in terror.

He's only ten.

And you, my friend, are trying to make me a childbearing offender?

*

A few more years passed. Now neither the System nor Wan Wenxia could take it any longer.

The System: “Want to switch missions?”

Wan Wenxia: “Approved.”

The System: “This one's not easy either. You just have to stay in this world for forty years.”

Wan Wenxia burst into tears of joy.

Forty years in prison was so much better than a life sentence!

[2]

From the moment Pei Ji was born, he was the most despised member of the imperial family.

His mother was suspected of colluding with the enemy nation. She was beaten to death and her body put on display in the marketplace. He was abandoned in the Cold Palace as a child, and after the two old servants died, he was left alone to fend for himself.

He thought this forsaken place would be his final home, until ten years later, when he returned to the place where they had first met, holding the hand of the person beside him.

He had just let a string of sweet words fall from his lips when he saw the person in front of him... burst into tears and fall to her knees.

Pei Ji: ?

Wan Wenxia and the System: If only you'd done this a few years earlier!!

Upcoming novel: My Favorite BE Couple Announced Their Relationship After Their Parenting Show Went Viral

Something big happened in the entertainment industry over the past few days.

#Meng Ting and Xu Peisong spotted at the Civil Affairs Bureau# #The model couple announces divorce# #Xu Peisong and Meng Ting end their three-month whirlwind romance#

The moment the marketing accounts posted the news, the whole industry erupted.

As the number one fan of their couple, Xu Youyou tearfully logged onto Weibo that day. One second before she shut down their couple super-topic, she closed her eyes and opened them again, only to find herself face-to-face with the two gorgeous stars who had appeared together in countless famous magazines, looking perfectly matched.

Meng Ting: “Youyou, Mommy is going abroad for further studies for a while. Stay with your useless dad for now. I'll come get you when I get back.”

Xu Peisong: “Youyou, stay with Dad. Your mom's going abroad, and she won't be able to climb back here. Don't wait for her.”

Xu Youyou silently stared at them, calm on the outside but a storm raging within.

You two have a child?!

*

After Meng Ting went abroad, Xu Youyou spent some time awkwardly getting along with her bargain-bin dad.

Every day after dinner, during TV time, she'd quietly switch away from the educational program Xu Peisong put on for her, search through the channels until she found Meng Ting's show, then silently watch her dad's reaction.

One evening, Meng Ting was being interviewed on TV. “Ms. Meng has just ended a marriage, and I've heard a lot of men in the industry who have admired you for a long time are eager to make their move. What are you looking for in your next partner?”

Meng Ting answered casually, “Someone who likes children and knows how to take care of people.”

Xu Peisong happened to be walking behind the sofa and perked up his ears.

Xu Youyou didn't think much of it until one morning a month later, when Xu Peisong suddenly barged into her room with a whole crew carrying cameras.

The comments went wild, and so did she.

#Meng Ting and Xu Peisong's daughter# #Meng and Xu didn't secretly marry, but they did have a child# Trending

Her dad was taking her on a variety show. Wait, did you talk to my mom about this?!

*

During filming:

Making dinner at a group meal. The third time Xu Peisong was choked by smoke and ran around in a panic, nearly setting the whole house on fire, Xu Youyou watched everything with an expression that said she'd accepted her fate, then silently took the spatula away from him.

Camping outdoors. When Xu Peisong turned pale and screamed after a bug suddenly crawled out of his sleeping bag, Xu Youyou calmly put on her shoes, grabbed the bug with her bare hands, and tossed it away.

Getting dressed in the morning. Xu Peisong deliberately crouched where one of the cameras could get a full view of his attentive, great-dad persona. He picked up a sock and tried to put it on her, but couldn't figure out where the opening was. “Why did your uncle buy you this piece of junk? What's wrong with his taste? Why are the ends open on both sides?”

Meng Ting, who'd been invited by the show and was eavesdropping behind the door: “...”

Xu Peisong, who sensed something was up and froze: “...”

Xu Youyou, staring into her mother's eyes, trembled as she spoke. “Dad, Mom bought me these arm sleeves.”

This novel is also known as I Became My Bargain Dad's Tool for Winning Back His Wife.

Theme: Build a beautiful society.