A Handbook for Building Infrastructure in the Underworld

First of all, thank you, dear readers, for staying with me all the way. This story has now ended, and my next novel, Everyone Hates Me, But I'm Rich, will start soon. Please add it to your reading list. Its blurb is below this one.

Novel Blurb:

[Theater Kid With a Career Obsession x Jealousy-Prone Hopeless Romantic]

[The female lead is all about her career, while the male lead falls for her on his own]

Hua Xiyan, a top landscape architect, transmigrates as the only daughter of the Jade-Bearing Emperor, a celestial ruler equal in status to the Heavenly Lord. She is engaged to the Second Prince, the most likely heir to the throne. There is no woman more noble than her, in Heaven or on Earth.

But on the very day she transmigrates, she's assigned to the Underworld.

A real hellish start!

Hua Xiyan: ???

So you're telling me I don't even get to enjoy one good day?

On her first day reporting for duty, she sees that the Underworld's buildings are unbelievably ugly. That simply won't do. No problem, she can handle urban planning. She whips up a plan and draws the blueprints in one go.

On the second day, she wonders why the Underworld is so pitch-black that it can't even have daylight. How are all the lovely flowers and plants supposed to grow? Well, don't blame her for resorting to a few tricks. The Prison Lord has no choice but to follow her plans and let sunlight shine across the land.

On the third day, she looks at the horrible living quarters and thinks... this is unbearable. They have to be torn down and rebuilt right now! Within three years, I want to see a beautiful Underworld paradise!

The Prison Lord is the most powerful person in the Underworld. To make things easier for her career, Hua Xiyan makes a point of looking after her "boss" every day.

The Prison Lord is hungry? What perfect timing. The first thing she did after arriving was update the kitchen's menu. An empty stomach leads to trouble, so she'll have the kitchen prepare a full imperial banquet for him.

The Prison Lord isn't sleeping well? Didn't she just grow a few potted plants the other day? If he gets annoyed and pulls the sky screen closed again, all her previous effort will have been wasted.

The Prison Lord's sleeping environment isn't good? What a coincidence. The house she just built has an elegant atmosphere, perfect for sleeping...

Until one day, the Prison Lord suddenly tells her, "I want to make you my empress. After that, the entire Underworld will be yours. If you want, I can help you conquer all four realms and make you empress of them all!"

Hua Xiyan is dumbfounded: ?!

Wait, what just happened?

Hua Xiyan blinks her big eyes. "Prison Lord, I'm not worthy..."

The Prison Lord looks moved. "For millions of years, no one has ever treated me this well... You're the only one."

Hua Xiyan: ...

"Why don't you take a little more time to think about it?"

The Prison Lord is immensely powerful but loves to sleep, and usually leaves all his official duties to the Ghost King. Yet the moment he sees this goddess from Heaven, he suddenly becomes completely smitten.

This goddess is sharp-tongued and formidable, but is she a bit of a... theater kid?

"Prison Lord, could you open this dark sky screen? This humble girl would like to plant some flowers and plants~"

"I'm an outsider, and all I want is a little piece of land. Is that really too much to ask? Sob, sob~"

The ghosts think to themselves: The goddess is beautiful, but she doesn't seem too bright. When has the Prison Lord ever fallen for such a thing?

But then the Prison Lord opens his sleepy eyes and mutters, "It's all yours. Do whatever you want."

The ghosts: !

The Prison Lord must have woken up on the wrong side of the bed!

Reading Notes: 1. Both leads are devoted to each other, one-on-one romance, happy ending.

2. Strong female lead. Romance and plot get equal attention, with a slight emphasis on the plot.

3. The heroine has a strong moral compass at the start, but loses it in the second half. There may occasionally be steamy scenes.

4. The author's humor is a little dry, so readers should bring a blanket.

5. More to be added if I think of anything.

Blurb for Everyone Hates Me, But I'm Rich:

Overworked office drone Xia Youlan transmigrates into a universally despised female side character in an unfinished novel.

The side character was born into a wealthy family, but was an absolute jinx, with a golden finger that made anyone she touched useless and brought misfortune to anyone she came into contact with...

Her parents are worth billions and adore each other.

Her eldest brother is a tech mogul and an overbearing CEO with stomach problems.

Her second brother has millions of fans and is a top-tier star of traditional Chinese fashion.

Her only twin sister is the novel's female lead: a stunningly beautiful and incredibly popular ordinary girl, the ideal woman in the eyes of the male lead and supporting male characters. She's even a powerful master of esoteric arts, and was supposed to transcend the world and ascend to immortality in the end.

As for her, despite having the same face as the female lead, she's utterly ordinary and has achieved nothing. She's also the perfect ally for a villain she has never even met, and ultimately brings down her entire family all by herself.

In the plot before the story was abandoned, her parents face life imprisonment because of her, her eldest brother's company is plagued by accident after accident and on the verge of bankruptcy, and her second brother's string of terrible movies ruins his reputation. Her sister, the female lead, is also struck by her bad luck and ultimately fails to ascend.

The useless side character loses her family's protection and gets trampled on by everyone. In the end, she dies alone and miserable.

And the ultimate winner of it all turns out to be a villain who barely appeared in the early chapters?

Xia Youlan is on the verge of tears. In her previous life, she died because she was poor. In this life, she was born into a wealthy family, but she still can't escape a tragic ending...

Wait, the story's only halfway done. What if, instead of dragging everyone down, she helped them succeed? Then she could... happily lie flat, couldn't she?

*

Sheng Qi'an, a rising star in his industry who started from nothing at a young age, has a face everyone loves and a reputation everyone wants to leverage. He publicly confesses his love on social media.

But the person he's confessing to isn't the eldest Xia daughter he's been openly courting. It's the Xia family's famously useless younger daughter.

Onlooker A: Huh? Am I seeing things? Did a boss this smart actually make a typo for once?

Onlooker B: You saw right. It's that Second Miss, the most useless person on the internet, good for nothing except being born into the right family.

Onlooker C: The Xia family must be thrilled. They can finally get rid of that useless good-for-nothing. It's just a shame that President Sheng is so young, yet has such poor taste.

Onlooker D: I was just about to change my name, and now I'm done for...

The comments are blazing with discussion, and every single one is mocking Xia Youlan.

But the Xia family's response leaves everyone speechless.

A verified government account posts a speech from a recipient of a national medal: We protect you with the honor of our country. Apart from the strength of our nation, no other Sheng matters.

Xingyao Technology releases an epic skin called "Xia Youlan Shines Alone" in its phenomenally popular game.

The nation's most stunning actor, the youngest triple-crown film emperor, Xia Yichen, quickly posts a photo with his little sister on Weibo, captioned: A polite no. My sister is too adorable for anyone to deserve her.

The Astronomical Observation Bureau announces that it has detected a celestial anomaly: a few stars have lined up to form a word. It seems to say: Get lost!

After half a day of silence, Sheng Qi'an updates his Weibo. He says nothing, posting only a picture of two hands holding each other.

At that moment, Xia Youlan rolls over on her five-hundred-square-meter bed and murmurs in her sleep: Lying flat feels so good. Who gets it?

*Upcoming novel: The Intern Little Immortal Is Determined to Hit Her KPIs: [A hapless soul transmigrates into a wish-granting official and starts granting netizens' wishes online]

*Upcoming novel: Don't Flirt With Senior Sister: [The push and pull between a beautiful, tragic senior sister and a scheming young wolf]

Theme: Even in adversity, you can turn the tables