Palace Attendant to the Imperial Household (Qing Dynasty Transmigration)

[Next Book: A Half-Retired Tang Dynasty Handbook / The First Secretary (Qing Dynasty), please add them to your reading lists!] Fang He, the front desk manager at a hotel, was settling a dispute when a drunken guest smashed a bottle over her head and sent her straight into the Forbidden City in the twenty-third year of the Kangxi reign. She transmigrated into Fang He, a palace maid who boiled water in the Qianqing Palace tea room. She was twenty-two, plain-looking, honest and quiet. In her ten years in the palace, her only stroke of luck had been being assigned to the Qianqing Palace, and then... nothing. Fang He had spent nine years in the Qianqing Palace. She rarely served in the main hall, had never had her monthly allowance increased, and even ambitious maids couldn't be bothered to make life difficult for her. Even Liang Jiugong, the chief eunuch by Kangxi's side, had to ask her what her name was when he saw her. Fang He was quite satisfied with this. If she could go unnoticed for just three more years, she could leave the palace, marry an ordinary man, earn a little money, and raise a child. She'd worked herself to the bone at a hotel for years, and now that she'd transmigrated, she wanted to try out the pleasures of being a couch potato. At first, Fang He kept her head down perfectly. Things went wrong one night when Kangxi had drunk too much. Someone used underhanded means to seduce the emperor and was dragged out of his bedchamber. Kangxi was so disgusted he threw up. The maid who had made the mistake was the one on night duty with Fang He. Liang Jiugong no longer asked her name. He pulled her inside, his face pale. “If you want to keep your head, put away those thoughts you shouldn't have and serve His Majesty properly!” Fang He: “...” She didn't have any thoughts like that! Perhaps she was afraid her head wasn't firmly attached, or perhaps she was fed up with being ordered around by a drunk. Fang He instinctively drew on the professional skills she'd honed in her previous life and took perfect care of the drunkard, keeping him asleep until dawn without even a headache. She devoutly hoped to have done a good deed without anyone knowing. But reality was cruel. All she got was a knowing smile from Liang Jiugong. “Miss, His Majesty has ordered that from now on, you'll serve inside the hall.” Fang He: “...” Had her chance at a lazy life really just flown away? Reader's Notes: 1. This is a semi-fictionalized setting and won't hold up to close historical scrutiny, but everyone's welcome to share their thoughts and point out mistakes! 2. We all know what Kangxi's harem was like. It will be lively in the beginning, but he will favor only her in the middle and later parts. The heroine always keeps a clear head and will never give him her whole heart and soul. 3. Paragraph comments are open. Add it to your reading list! Synopsis of A Half-Retired Tang Dynasty Handbook Gu Yu, who cleared the levels in an infinite-flow world, transmigrates into the body of Gu Yu, a young female constable in Chang'an County during the Tang Dynasty. She was allowed to join the county office because her father had given his life in service to the court. Timid and not particularly clever, she only knew how to keep her head down and work. She was almost bullied into becoming a kitchen maid. When Gu Yu arrived, she found herself in a house with no money, a hundred taels of debt, and a sickly younger brother to raise. Her predecessor had died falling down a mountain while gathering herbs for him. Gu Yu couldn't be more pleased with her situation. No more struggling between life and death day and night. She just had to clock in every day, sit in the kitchen, sneak a taste of the good food, and watch everyone else run themselves ragged solving cases, frazzled and exhausted... Who understands the joy of staying dry while everyone else gets soaked? Going home was even better. She could pet the dog, grow flowers, secretly catch a few criminals to feed her golden finger, and raise her little brother. Perfect! It was a retirement life she hadn't even dared dream of... If only that dog of a man surnamed Zhao in Chang'an County would stop trying every trick in the book to expose her identity! Zhao Zheng, heir to the Duke of Lu, had to retire from the Imperial Guard after being gravely wounded. With no interest in life, he was forced by his imperial uncle to take the post of county magistrate in Chang'an County. On taking office, he faced several difficult cases to solve, including a string of murders that had shocked Chang'an and a poisoning at a noble estate outside the city. Outside the office, he also had to endure the jeers of former colleagues and mockery from his powerful relatives and friends... His motto was that no matter how much he thought it over, dying seemed like the quicker route to peace. But before he could decide which way of dying would hurt less and cause the least trouble for his family, the culprits in several cases were dumped at the Chang'an County Office with all their evidence. Zhao Zheng sat bolt upright on his deathbed. Wait, he could still be saved! If he could find this brilliant detective and encourage... no, support her, then solve more cases and let him lie flat and grow old peacefully in Chang'an County, perhaps life wouldn't be so bad after all! An alternate Tang Dynasty Sharp-tongued reborn big shot * Beautiful, flexible bootlicker