A Senior Maid's Daily Struggles

[Blurb for This Novel] The blurb has been revised. It will be fine-tuned again before the novel officially starts. Transmigrating overnight, Tang Fu pressed a hand to her forehead. The good news: she had landed in a wealthy household. The bad news: she was one of its servants. The modern 996, 007 work schedule was bad enough. After transmigrating to ancient times, she was exploited even worse. As a hereditary wage slave in the Duke's Estate, she had no time, no rights, and no freedom. Her life was in someone else's hands, too. Life was hard, and saving money was no easy feat. First she had to survive all the scheming and infighting. Only then could she think about freeing her whole family from their servitude, making a fortune, and building a future. [Next Novel Available for Preorder] - A Palace Woman's Career Ladder Su Shang had transmigrated to the Great Liang Dynasty over a decade ago. Her family was comfortably well-off. Her father taught at a private school, and her mother was a tutor who taught etiquette to the daughters of wealthy families. Su Shang had also learned to read and write, and conducted herself with propriety. Her family was harmonious, and life was peaceful. Who could have known that disaster would strike? Her parents were killed by bandits on their way home from visiting relatives. She and her little brother survived only because they had been staying with their maternal uncle's family. Misfortune followed one thing after another. Her clan pressured her, and the family business was at risk. To carve out a future for herself, Su Shang gritted her teeth and signed up for the imperial selection of female officials. Only after entering the palace did she learn that not only was it difficult to find a way forward, even staying alive was a struggle. Emperor Yongjia had many children. Among them, the thirteenth prince, Zhao Qiyu, was born to a palace maid in the rear quarters. His birth mother was low-ranking, so no one paid him any attention. Worse, the date of his birth displeased the emperor, and even the palace servants often spoke of him with contempt. Yet this prince, whose circumstances were so difficult, saved her when an old eunuch was bullying her. Su Shang began to pay attention to him. His blank gaze, his perpetually empty stomach, his ill-fitting clothes, his shoes that pinched his feet. Though he was of the imperial bloodline, his hands still developed chilblains in winter. Su Shang couldn't bear to see him suffer. She made him a few outfits and pairs of shoes, gave him ointment and pastries a few times, and occasionally exchanged a few words with him. After she became a record keeper in the Palace Service Bureau and gained some standing in the palace, she looked out for him a little, too. It was no more than a meager kindness, yet he remembered it for a very long time. Long enough to ascend the throne and promise to grant her one wish in return. When Zhao Qiyu first studied at the Inner Academy as a boy, he was exceptionally perceptive and understood everything at a glance. The first thing his teacher taught him was to hide his brilliance. A heart full of thunder, a face as calm as a still lake: that was how one achieved great things. After meeting Su Shang, he realized that some things simply couldn't be hidden. Whenever she was there, his gaze couldn't help but fall on her. After enduring humiliation and finally achieving his goal, Zhao Qiyu turned to the female official at his side and promised to grant her one wish. In his heart, he also thought that even if she wanted to be empress, he would find a way to make it happen. But she said she wanted to leave the palace with dignity and fanfare. For the first time, Su Shang saw a scorching warmth in his usually cool eyes. The next moment, he had her pinned beneath him, their breaths mingling. His voice remained calm: "Why not leave in a blaze of glory by taking your place as empress?" Theme: Take it one step at a time.