The Idle Fish’s Rules for Surviving Palace Intrigue

At home, Tang Jiayu is bullied by the people she is supposedly related to by blood. She runs away alone and enters the palace selection, vowing to change the fate she was born into and improve both her and her mother's lot in life. During the selection, her unwavering loyalty to her best friend unexpectedly wins the emperor's favor, and she is chosen to enter the palace as a First Attendant. Leaving her parents behind with heavy hearts, Tang Jianing begins learning palace etiquette and rules. She moves into Qixiang Palace, where she must share quarters with a Noble Consort at odds with the empress. Faced with all kinds of trouble from the palace's high-ranking ladies, she is only a lowly First Attendant. Fortunately, her good friend Hao Caizhen supports her, and a loyal young maid stays by her side. Tang Jiayu resolves to fight for the emperor's favor and rise above her station. But winning the emperor's favor brings her even more calamities: warnings from the empress dowager, hatred from the empress, and jealousy from the women of the inner palace. In the depths of the palace, every corner hides schemes and unseen attacks. Framed for causing the Noble Consort's miscarriage, she gains the emperor's favor only to lose it again. She and the emperor torment each other, yet in the end, they still find a measure of genuine love.