His Majesty Is the Cannon-Fodder Heroine's Golden Ticket

Xie Yu finds herself inside a book, turned into a cannon-fodder character who dresses as a man and dies after just a couple of chapters. She doesn't want to die. Luckily, she knows the future emperor is right in front of her, so sticking close to him is the obvious choice. First, have him repay a life-saving favor, then become his closest friend, and finally help him seize the throne. That's a man's playbook, and she can't pull it off. First, dazzle everyone, then fall in love, and finally live and die together, growing old side by side. That's a woman's playbook, and she can't do that either. But watching other men pledge their loyalty to the emperor and risk their lives for him, while other women bat their eyelashes at him and throw themselves into his arms, Xie Yu decides she can do it. It's that simple. If they can manage it, so can she! She'll cling to her powerful patron and rise to the top, escaping her wretched fate as cannon fodder! But just as she's about to get her way, the emperor fixes her with a penetrating gaze. “Am I merely your ladder to success?” “...No, Your Majesty. You're the cinnabar mole on my heart (my powerful patron).”