The Wise Ruler Training Plan

Yun Fei transmigrates into the body of a little princess of Northern Yan, where she and her timid, useless mother depend on each other in the Cold Palace.

Until one day, her mother hands her two scrolls sent from the imperial capital of Great Yong:

One is an iron contract and vermilion edict: When circumstances make it inconvenient, act as you see fit.

The other is an edict appointing a regent: The daughter of the Yun clan is requested to return to court and assist in governing.

And so the little princess of a vassal state takes on her family's KPI: help the puppet child emperor rule in his own right.

With a flourish of her pen, she draws up the "Hundred-Step Plan to Train a Wise Emperor" overnight, then launches three alternate identities at once:

[Young Master Yun] Delicate as a willow in the breeze, she becomes the child emperor's goddess in his dreams, showering him with tenderness and affection.

[Princess Yan] Arrogant and overbearing, she plays the child emperor's greatest nemesis, putting him through endless trials.

[Young Pavilion Master] Rich enough to rival a nation, she acts as the child emperor's sugar daddy, supplying him with money and resources.

Yun Fei plays a three-sided game, plotting with everything under control and planning a thousand miles ahead. Her split-personality acting makes the child emperor love her until it hurts, hate her with gritted teeth, get wildly jealous, and admire her as a kindred spirit.

When the time comes to step away after accomplishing her mission, Yun Fei waves goodbye and deletes her accounts: "I'll marry myself."

But the young emperor catches up with her to settle the accounts. The emperor, whose heart has been led on for ten years, is both devoted and dangerous: "Princess Yan, don't panic. There are plenty of accounts I need to settle with you. My dear little sister, who was supposed to be on her deathbed..."

The little princess keeps a straight face and plays dumb: "Your Majesty, your Young Master Yun has already married Young Master Shen, the Pavilion Master!"

Xuan Ji: "Oh, I don't mind. A ruler may take his subject's wife."

Yun Fei: Heehee, not so funny. How do I act in the next scene? Help, urgently!

--- #A little split personality is fun, but a lifetime of it ends in a crematorium# ---

Xuan Ji inherited the throne at six. Inside the palace, the empress dowager's relatives usurped power; outside, the great clans threw their weight around. After three years of trembling like a puppet on strings, he finally got the Yun clan's help.

In a dimly lit secret chamber, a frail girl, coughing incessantly, asked Xuan Ji, "I only want to ask Your Majesty: What kind of emperor do you want to become?"

The puppet child emperor was shaken. For the first time, someone had asked him what kind of person he wanted to be.

Xuan Ji said, "I want to create the greatest age of prosperity and become Great Yong's most powerful emperor."

"Good." Yun Fei took his hand and said earnestly, "From now on, I'll help Your Majesty realize your grand ambitions."

Her voice seemed to hold magic. At that moment, Xuan Ji thought she was a goddess sent to him by Heaven.

From then on, protecting his frail, lonely little sister Yun, seeking doctors for her and trying to prolong her life, became the child emperor's sole motivation for conquering the feudal lords and unifying the realm.

But Xuan Ji didn't know that the gentle, pitiful, dying "little sister Yun" in the secret chamber, whom he had sworn to protect with his life, was the same arrogant, power-abusing, treasonous villain who kept skating on the edge of death by daylight: the hostage princess of Yan, sent from the frontier.

Many years later, the jealous little princess asked Xuan Ji with a smile, "Your Majesty, who do you love, little sister Yun or Princess Yan?"

Oh no, this is a life-or-death question!

--- [Bonus Question] ---

[Question]: Why is Emperor Jing of Great Yong taking part in a women's ball game?

[Answer]: See that ball the heroine keeps passing around among her three alternate identities? That's the child emperor.

(The romance begins after they reach adulthood.)

Another novel in the same series, about a grandmother and granddaughter: "The Lost Pearl Crosses the River" (Yun Fei was born in 500, Lin Yan in 994):

Lin Yan, founding empress of the Great Ning dynasty, was born to a poor family and raised in the lowest social class. Three women across two generations of the same family were all famous courtesans in the capital.

As a child, Lin Yan was a "second-generation courtesan" who ruled the pleasure quarters.

Then the former crown prince's tutor's youngest daughter "died in a dog's place." Lin Yan inherited the belongings of the leader of the pure-stream faction and wandered all night in the winter cold. At dawn, Lin Yan knocked on the gates of Chancellor Chu's residence and said to Chu Yi, "Young Master, I am willing to give up my free status and enter the lowly register."

Eight-year-old Lin Yan didn't know what being registered among the lowly meant. She only knew she wanted to become someone as powerful and well-connected as her mother.

The future "Young Master Lin" would shake the court and country, but she could never escape the label of "a family of courtesans." On another winter night, at dawn, Lin Yan said to herself, "If the world will not accept my humble origins, then I will seek shelter in an immortal legacy of great deeds."

The shame of the southward flight remains unavenged. When will the bitterness of Zhanghua end?

"Young Master, I want to become empress." In the Pavilion of Books, amid a boundless sea of ancient texts, Lin Yan smiled seductively and walked away without looking back. "The whole story of the ages, for all its glory, ends up on a single page. Let future generations judge the merits and faults of me, Lin Yan."

The "Young Master" who had held her dear and protected her for more than a decade had by then become emperor. Watching the girl walk away with such resolve, he let a tear fall onto the weathered railing.

"A lone lamp still burning meets the sparks of stars. For all my life, I will be the gull that ferries you across."

Lin Yan was glad that Chu Yi had brought her into the arena of power. The starving little beggar had gained a vast world in which to soar freely.

Chu Yi regretted bringing Lin Yan into the arena of power, where thorns lined every step. A brilliant light shone in Lin Yan's eyes. Chu Yi dared not hold her too tightly for fear of breaking her wings, yet dared not let go for fear she would return hurt and alone.

One-on-one romance, happy ending.

Theme: The wish for a prosperous age