The Maid Fu Yao

[Household intrigue + power struggles + ensemble cast + ex-husband’s groveling redemption] Song Yao, a servant in the Chancellor’s residence, caught her mistress’s eye at the age of eighteen. She went from being a second-class maid to an adopted daughter of the Chancellor’s family, then was married off to the Jia merchants of Huzhou to help the Chancellor’s household secure their wealth. She entered the Jia family hoping they would support one another and share in each other’s honors. At the wedding, Jia Lianghan, the eldest son of the family, was handsome and refined, with impeccable manners. She thought she had found a man to entrust her life to. But she was soon proven wrong. Her mother-in-law was cruel, her relatives made things difficult, and the concubines provoked her. The day after the wedding, one of them was found to be pregnant, humiliating her. But she was no pushover. She took charge of the household and outmaneuvered the other women. She would fight for the comfortable life she deserved. Yet when she became pregnant, all it took was the Chancellor’s family falling from power for the Jia family to try to demote her from wife to concubine and cast her out. Their influence forced the issue, and when they failed to demote her, they married another woman as a “co-wife.” Her husband even dismissed his concubines for this “co-wife.” Later, with the help of a powerful patron, her former husband knelt at her feet and begged her to take him back. She left with her children and property without a second glance. When scions of the capital’s great families sought her hand in marriage, bringing countless treasures and riches to her door, she merely raised her eyes and told them to get in line…