Leaving the Palace to Make a Living, I Raise the Capital's Perfect Wives

When she was fifteen, Wen Jin's parents took twenty taels of silver from the village head and shoved her into the cart carrying girls selected for the palace.

Of the forty-seven girls who entered with her, only she and Xue Ling walked out of the palace alive ten years later.

But just two years after leaving the palace, Xue Ling died in a well in the back courtyard of the Marquis of Changxing's residence.

The well had barely been sealed when the palace instructor summoned by the marquis's household arrived. It was Wen Jin.

The steward, Mama Qian, thought she was too young and immediately called her "Old Madam Wen."

Wen Jin remained calm. "A mama is a married woman, or one who has nursed a master's child. Unmarried female officials in the palace are addressed as Auntie."

The marquis's wife asked her to teach proper etiquette, and to erase the strangulation marks on Third Miss's neck within seven days, before the palace inspected the candidates for imperial consorts.

When Mama Qian tried to force her to kneel and acknowledge her as mistress in front of everyone, Wen Jin simply knelt and said two words. The marquis's wife came down the steps herself to help her up!

When a palace official insisted the marks were from an attempted suicide to avoid selection, Third Miss, whom Wen Jin had taught, spoke up. The official had no choice but to order the clerk to record: permitted to remain at home, exempt from selection!

Hidden in the insole of Xue Ling's shoe was an embroidered patch. Of its thirteen names, eleven had been crossed out. Wen Jin was on the last line, with a fresh stitch beneath her name.

As she was leaving, the palace official leaned close and laughed. "Of the thirteen in Kunning Palace, you're the last one."

No one could have guessed that the last person on the list would go on to train the mistresses of every great household in the capital.