The Qing Dynasty Palace Official

[Pre-release: A Semi-Retired Handbook for the Tang Dynasty / This Fairy Is Not Quite Proper, Please Take a Look, Blurbs Below~] Advertising copywriter Geng Shuning suddenly dies at her desk. She transmigrates into Geng Jiashuning, one of the eight head palace attendants serving the Empress Dowager in the Palace of Compassionate Tranquility. The original owner is nineteen. In another year, she will be allowed to leave the palace and return home. With her family background, she could marry into a respectable household and become its lady of the house. Yet an unrequited love that came to nothing takes her life before dawn. * Geng Shuning treasures the hard-won gift of life. She stays tucked away in the Palace of Compassionate Tranquility, cooking delicious food and earning a little money for her dowry. She plans to behave herself, wait for her family to bring her out of the palace, and marry some obedient pretty boy so she can enjoy the good life she has struggled to obtain. * She waits and waits, until a year later, when the Emperor disregards his own health and works tirelessly at affairs of state, only to fall seriously ill. The Empress Dowager turns around and lends her to His Majesty at the Hall of Mental Cultivation, to attend to him personally. Her meaning, both open and unspoken, is that Geng Shuning should stay for another two years. Geng Shuning: ...Well, she would like to send warm regards to the ancestors of the Aisin-Gioro family. Thanks! Reading Notes: 1. A loosely imagined Qing Dynasty transmigration story, so please don't expect historical accuracy~ 2. There is palace intrigue in the early and middle parts. The Emperor is a typical emperor, and Fourth Master is just what he is~ 3. The harem is full of beauties early on. From the middle onward, as he tries every means to get a taste of our girl, he will dote exclusively on her. It should count as a sweet little romance~ 4. There are countless great stories on JJ. If you don't like this one, just move on. No need to announce you're dropping it. Comments that derail the discussion will be reported for deletion~ 5. I finally figured out how to enable paragraph comments. Save this story and reach a Likeability score of 100 to comment by paragraph~ ---Blurb for A Semi-Retired Handbook for the Tang Dynasty--- Gu Yu, who cleared the challenges in an infinite-flow world, transmigrates into Gu Yu, a young female constable in Chang'an County during the Tang Dynasty. She was specially admitted to Chang'an County after her father gave his life serving the imperial court. Timid and unintelligent, she only knows how to keep her head down and work. She has practically been bullied into becoming a kitchen maid who tends the fire. When Gu Yu arrives, she finds herself destitute, a hundred taels in debt, and responsible for a sickly younger brother. The original owner died after falling while gathering herbs in the mountains for him. Gu Yu, however, couldn't be happier with her situation. No more struggling between life and death day and night. She just has to clock in, squat in the kitchen, eat the delicious food before everyone else, and watch other people exhaust themselves and rack their brains over cases... Who understands the joy of staying dry while everyone else gets rained on? Life at home is even more comfortable: pet the dog, grow some flowers, then secretly catch a few criminals to feed her golden finger and raise her little brother. That's all she needs! This is the retirement life she never even dared to dream of... It would be even better if that dog of a man surnamed Zhao in Chang'an County would stop trying every possible way to expose her identity! Zhao Zheng, heir to the Duke of Lu, is forced to leave the Imperial Guards after suffering a serious injury. With nothing to live for, he is strong-armed by his maternal uncle, the emperor, into taking the post of magistrate of Chang'an County. On taking office, he faces several difficult cases to solve, including a string of murders that has shocked Chang'an and a poisoning at a noble family's country estate. Outside the county, he also has to put up with the mockery of former colleagues and the scorn of his powerful relatives and friends... The whole point is that no matter how much he thinks about it, dying seems like the more pleasant option. But before he can decide which way to die would be less painful and not trouble his family, the criminals behind several cases are dumped in the Chang'an County yamen, evidence in hand. Zhao Zheng jolts upright on his deathbed. Wait, there's still a chance to save this situation! If he can find this master detective and spur... no, support her, she can solve more cases and let him settle down in Chang'an County to lie flat and enjoy his retirement. Maybe life isn't so bad after all! Fictional Tang Dynasty setting Sharp-tongued, reborn powerhouse x beautiful, flexible, devoted admirer ---Blurb for This Fairy Is Not Quite Proper--- Yu Shanshan was a famous workaholic in her post-apocalyptic world. If working herself to death didn't kill her, she would work even harder. To stay alive, she pushed her useless light-based ability, which could only illuminate things, all the way to level nine, becoming a renowned powerhouse among the post-apocalyptic bases. Then their world was hit by a level-ten Zombie Emperor, who brought countless bases to ruin. Yu Shanshan: I'm tired. Let's just destroy the world. * After dying alongside the Zombie Emperor, she transmigrates to the cultivation world and becomes an outer disciple of Yaoguang Sect on the Cultivation Continent. After nine years of cultivation, she has only reached the second level of Qi Refining. She also has a fake five-element spirit root, and if she can't break through to the fourth level of Qi Refining within another year, she'll be expelled from the sect. Yu Shanshan immediately decides to lie flat. After all those years of grinding, she only wants to be a happy little salted fish until she's expelled, then go enjoy herself in the mortal world. Her cultivation is enough for mortal life. She'll be content with money, free time, and another lifetime to enjoy. * Who knew her ability would come along too? Everyone else has only a dantian, where cultivation can form a golden core, but she also has a mindscape, containing a huge, energy-depleted crystal core. Yu Shanshan: ...Perfect. Even a faint light-based ability can make life more comfortable for a salted fish who wants to lie flat. But unexpectedly, whenever her light ability levels up, the crystal core in her mind illuminates the spirit roots in her dantian, slowly increasing their purity. Heavens: From the most useless fake spirit root to the ultimate Chaos Spirit Root! Ascension is just around the corner. Get back to grinding! Yu Shanshan, expressionless: There's no way I'm grinding again. Not in this life or the next. But hard work is the only path for a workaholic, while a salted fish can lie flat in countless ways. Who says a salted fish can't ascend? Theme: No matter the era or the hardships they face, women must learn to love themselves.