Dai Mao, a seasoned expert in reviewing web novels, took a tumble straight into an old-school, melodramatic novel she'd recently gotten into.
In the book, the eighth prince, Li Jing, the Nth male character, was a dissolute playboy who amused himself with fish and birds, frequented the red-light district, and committed all sorts of misdeeds.
All the powerful families in Chang'an were waiting for the old emperor to close his eyes and breathe his last. Surely the good days of this spoiled heir would come to an end then.
And sure enough, after the late emperor died, the male lead, Li Yao, took the throne and made Bai Sang, the only daughter of the Minister of the Secretariat, his empress. He soon had a wife and children, enjoying all the blessings of a full household.
Meanwhile, the eighth prince, the new emperor's own younger brother, was inexplicably convicted and thrown into prison, stripped of his title and reduced to a commoner, then beheaded.
Faced with this ridiculous turn of events, Dai Mao beat her chest and stamped her feet, resolving to save the eighth prince, who was supposed to die young.
But she just had to transmigrate into the body of a maid who kept turtles in the eighth prince's residence. Not only was her status low, she didn't even have a single complete line in the original novel.
Still, she refused to lie flat. She kept working hard, determined to fix the hopeless mess of a man who couldn't be made to amount to anything.
And so...
She urged the prince to study. He gave up.
She encouraged him to practice martial arts. He slacked off.
She guided him toward becoming an official. He simply stopped going to work.
One day, unable to take it anymore, she picked up Linggui Yannian, kicked open the eighth prince's door, and shouted, "Li Jing, I've had enough of raising you, you turtle!"
At the time, the eighth prince was reclining on a low couch, twirling a pine nut between his slender fingers to tease a bird in its cage.
He raised a lazy eyebrow. "You've been getting bolder lately. How dare you call me by my name?"
Dai Mao tossed the turtle in her arms at him and glared. "If you don't deal with it soon, I'll use it to make turtle soup."
The eighth prince wasn't angry. He slowly sat up, set the turtle aside, walked over to her, and bent down to look at her.
"Dai Mao, you've got it wrong. The one you're raising isn't a turtle. It's the eighth prince."
[Blurb dated 2024.12.26]
Theme: Change for love
