The Imperial Palace Zoo

--Blurb--

Here's what happened:

Xiang Xiaonian transmigrated.

She became a baby who had been sold into the palace, not even old enough to have lived through one full cycle of twelve years. Then this powerless little nobody was assigned to the Beast Garden, a place nobody wanted to work and where the death rate was sky-high.

The good news was that Xiang Xiaonian discovered she could understand animals, and she also got a System that called itself the "Intangible Cultural Heritage Collection System."

The bad news was that Xiang Xiaonian might not live much longer.

And yet!

But!

Xiang Xiaonian discovered she seemed to have a "Beloved by All Beasts" buff.

So, to everyone's astonishment, Xiang Xiaonian survived without a scratch.

What's more, every beast in the Beast Garden obeyed her completely, happily flopping over to be petted.

Well, someone had finally taken over the dreadful job.

The lives of the other palace servants-in-training assigned to the Beast Garden were saved, too.

Everyone saw that Xiang Xiaonian worked hard and minded her own business. She just spent her free time talking to herself in the garden while tinkering with things she called "intangible cultural heritage."

Apart from thinking Xiang Xiaonian was just a tiny bit crazy, both sides managed to get along peacefully for a while.

Xiang Xiaonian chatted and sunbathed with a bunch of fluffy companions, and made intangible cultural heritage out of the "wisdom of our ancestors" to liven up her dull, uneventful days... Her little life was going quite comfortably.

Then Xiang Xiaonian, who had nearly entered retirement mode from having so little to do, decided to find some fun, or rather, to enrich the cultural life of her overly comfortable existence.

And so.

Xiang Xiaonian began teaching the fluffy ones all kinds of skills.

For example, scent tracking. The result: a case was solved, and the gangsters who had kidnapped a powerful family's child were found. Another merit earned.

For example, training them to obey commands without question. The result: they made such an impression that even the foreign powers stirring on the border bowed in submission. Another merit earned.

And then there were acrobatics. The result: a new source of income. The Beast Garden became a zoo for family outings, and all kinds of businesses sprang up, soon rivaling the Happy Valley of later generations. Commoners and nobles alike could enjoy everything the zoo had to offer on equal terms. The prejudice and barriers between scholars, farmers, artisans, and merchants were gradually washed away by all the laughter. Yet another merit earned!

And then there was her little habit of collecting strange things that seemed like "local specialties," which she called "intangible cultural heritage." People assumed she simply liked this stuff, so those below her began voluntarily gathering "specialties" from all over: writing them down, drawing and recording them, or coming to the capital to perform. In this way, intangible cultural heritage, nearly lost to later generations, flourished here in a profusion of forms.

And then there was more...

With one pioneering achievement after another, Xiang Xiaonian's status steadily rose. Then she caught the eye of the Ninth Gate Inspector, whom everyone regarded as a jade-faced Shura, an incorruptible paragon, and the emperor's own younger brother.

What a remarkable talent.

Later, Xiang Xiaonian, now honored with an official title and a string of achievements, said:

Um... how exactly did things turn out like this?

At first, all she wanted was to make her life a little less boring, since it had become far too comfortable?

A friendly reminder:

Many liberties have been taken, and some things have been forcibly made to make sense.

The heroine's golden finger is extremely powerful.

The System is mostly just background scenery.

Theme: All lives are equal. Cherish them.