The author really loves this premise and has decided to polish it carefully. Updates may be slower, but they'll be steady and paced, with quality as the top priority.
Lu Xiaotan transmigrates and is immediately sold into a prince's manor as a bedchamber maid. Drawing on her past life as a corporate wage slave, she takes a hard look at the profession.
Career starting point: the junior bedchamber maid of the third son of the ninth son of the current emperor.
The biggest perk of the job, and her guarantee of survival: all she brought with her to ancient times was a quick tongue. If she left the prince's manor, she really wouldn't survive.
Her direct boss, Yuan Zhao, is nineteen, highly skilled in martial arts, morally upright, and handsome.
The optimal career plan: her father-in-law becomes Crown Prince, then emperor; Yuan Zhao becomes Crown Prince, then emperor; she becomes an unloved but formidable consort; she rules from behind the curtain; then she poisons the old emperor and takes the throne herself.
At first, Yuan Zhao thought his pretty and amusing little bedchamber maid would be good company. When he married his principal wife someday, he would make her a concubine, and after his legitimate son was born, give her a child of her own to rely on.
Later, her sincere affection moved him, and after many twists and turns, he resolved to marry her.
Later still, Yuan Zhao learned that she had never been sincere for even a moment. Everything she did was in pursuit of the right moment to seize power and profit.
When they met again, they were each other's greatest rival.
She still smiled sweetly at him, but brazenly proposed that they divide the realm between them.
The hilt of the sword in his palm crumbled to dust. Gazing at his beautiful concubine, he said each word slowly: "Impossible."
Note:
1. A highly calculating heroine with a robotic air, who seems like a younger sister but is actually older * a self-deluding, hopelessly lovestruck, gradually domesticated feudal young man as the male lead.
2. The male lead is not just a background character, and the romance is a major focus. Romance to career is about 4:6. The setting is very loose, and the career plot isn't rigorous, serving mainly to advance the romance. In the end, they both make concessions and rule together as co-emperors. They're often lovey-dovey, but sometimes quarrel over state affairs. Fighting and making up is healthy.
3. Both leads are virgins, one-on-one romance, happy ending. The heroine will have many admirers with unrequited crushes, all of whom willingly lend her a hand.
Theme: If you can make it big, find a way to do it.
