After the Women of the Marquis's Household Were Reduced to Commoners

The Minghou household backed the wrong side in the struggle between the princes and princesses, and now it's been confiscated! Lord Ming took his own life. His legitimate eldest son and his concubine-born younger sons were all exiled to the frontier. The empress ascended the throne and, in her mercy, only demoted the women of the household to commoner status. There are eight wives, concubines, and daughters in all, each with her own charms and figure. They've been raised never to touch a drop of water or soil, unable to do a day's work or tell one grain from another. All they know is to open their mouths for food and hold out their arms for clothes, paint their brows, rouge their lips, play the zither, recite poetry, and dabble in ink and paint. At most, they can thread a needle, split silk, or work an abacus, but they have no idea how to wash clothes, prepare vegetables, or pull up turnips, let alone grow vegetables, raise chickens, or work the bellows. Everything is a mess, everything is going wrong. One by one, they fix it all and put things right. With no man left to compete for and serve, the principal wife and concubines instead become friends who understand one another. Without their different ranks to divide them, the legitimate and concubine-born daughters instead become true sisters. From washing and ironing clothes for others to opening the capital's most renowned clothing shop; from writing letters home for two copper coins to sitting the imperial examinations and entering officialdom; from struggling to get a full meal to running a little eatery that even the empress comes to visit. Three couples are currently planned: Legitimate daughter Ming Baoqing x Chang'an's constable commander (an insecure wolf, love at first sight) Stepmother Lan Panxiao x the head steward who came with her dowry (a middle-aged virgin, secretly in love for years) Younger sister Ming Baojin x the mischievous boy next door (childhood sweethearts, training him to be a proper gentleman) Added notes (possible dealbreakers): There's also a pair of pen pals who become confidants. They're nine years apart, and their ending is open. This is a story about the women striving to make their way in the world, but it does include romance. I don't think there's too much romance, though some readers do. The current empress is a woman, and the next one will be too, but this is not a matriarchy. Preview of the upcoming novel, Auspicious Joy at the Jia Residence: The newly enthroned emperor in Chang'an is a widower. Having lost his beloved wife, he can't stand to see others happy. Annoyed with his court officials, he cuts their red strings of fate and randomly pairs them up. The bookworm Grand Chancellor Ji's little daughter and the soldierly General Zhuang's daughter, Chuimo, what will become of them? Once the imperial edict arrives, the shrewd chancellor turns into a simpleton, and the stern general becomes a stutterer. The old widower rubs his ears: finally, some peace. He rubs his chest: much better. Then he glances over and sees his dashing, elegant, capable minister sneaking looks at a young woman. He gives him a closer look. Hey! Isn't her father the one I just gave a dressing-down? If you like her, then marry her! The old widower takes such pleasure in matchmaking that on the wedding night he hands out two flasks of wine, but only one has been spiked with an aphrodisiac. Who could have guessed that the couple who drank the spiked wine would lie back-to-back, fighting to keep their composure, while the pair who drank the plain wine would be swept away by desire? Two couples: A bickering couple who fell for each other long ago, and a powerful official humbly seeking the love of a cool and noble young woman. Theme: Return to the simple truths of life and enjoy independence and freedom.