Female Protagonist

On the day Pei Rongqi ascended the throne, a number of people were driven out of the palace.

Some were restless young maids; others were aging servants.

I looked at the eunuch and asked a rather presumptuous question.

“Eunuch Chen, must I leave too?”

We had known each other for years, and he looked a little troubled.

“His Majesty said it makes no difference whether the others go, Aunt Feng, but you must leave.”

I nodded in understanding and packed my things.

Looking back at the palace walls through the fine snow, I suddenly remembered Rongqi at nine, clutching my sleeve with all his strength.

“Sister, you must never, ever leave Rongqi.”

After dying during an all-night gaming session, I woke in another world as the daughter of a destitute family.

I had dreamed of wealth, power, and a grand new life, but this world valued poor girls less than stray animals.

Sold into a merchant household, I learned that relying on a man could cost me my life.

To survive, I would have to find another path—and build a future with my own hands.

I worked on a pleasure boat, making my living at the bottom of society.

One day I found a woman’s body.

While searching her for valuables, I discovered a letter tucked out of sight.

Only then did I realize who this battered, broken girl had been.

I laid a hand over her staring eyes, her body crisscrossed with bruises.

“Don’t worry.

I won’t take your name for nothing.

I’ll avenge you.”

After marrying the notoriously tyrannical emperor, I accidentally swapped bodies with him.

But the exchange wasn’t quite permanent.

By day, he dismissed officials.

By night, I rescued them.

He punished the consorts.

I soothed the beauties.

And he still had the nerve to snap at me.

“Which hand did you touch her with?”

Honestly.

Without me, this country would fall apart sooner or later.

Everyone calls Xie Qingwei the finest nobleman in Shengdu, and Jiang Zhiyu has perfected every virtue expected of a woman to win his family’s approval.

Then a vision shows her the miserable future awaiting her as his wife.

Determined to escape, she points to the impoverished Xue Shao and declares him the man she loves.

But securing a better marriage is only the beginning: in a world that gives women so few choices, Zhiyu may have to find a higher place of her own.

When Sovereign Cangxuan returned from his mortal trial, he brought a mortal woman with him.

They said she was Princess Yuyao of the mortal realm, a beauty without equal.

The Old Man of the Moon declared that she was the true reincarnation of the Azure Empress—the woman the sovereign loved.

And so the empress and the sovereign threw me, the impostor who had deceived him, straight into the Well of Gods and Demons.

The third time my parents came to order me to pay my brother’s gambling debts, I tossed a dagger onto the ground.

“Fine.

One finger for a thousand taels.”

As they had so many times before, they cursed and lunged to beat me.

A guard caught them by the backs of their necks and pinned them to the ground.

I raised an eyebrow.

The guard kindly taught them to kowtow.

“Repeat after me—We greet Her Highness, the noble consort.”

Before ascending to immortality, my cultivation partner worried I would never let him go.

So he put a spell on me to erase my memories.

What he hadn’t expected was that I would fall for every man I met.

He hadn’t even ascended yet, and I’d already fallen madly in love three times.

At last, he couldn’t stand it anymore and appeared before me.

He thought I would fall in love with him at first sight, abandon everyone else, and lose myself hopelessly in him.

But I only looked at this vaguely familiar man.

Then, torn, I asked, “If you really like me that much, would you mind being my second husband?”

My ex completely lost his mind.

My husband brought home his “true love” and insisted on taking her as a concubine.

Tears of emotion filled my eyes as I clasped his true love’s hand and refused to let go.

“How could I possibly let you settle for being a concubine?

You can have my place as his lawful wife!

“Why don’t we make it a one-stop affair today—divorce for me, wedding for you!”

There was no time to waste.

The imperial decree ordering the confiscation of the family estate was already on its way!

When my elder sister tossed her embroidered ball to choose a husband, it split in two.

The heir to the Marquis of Yongning and young General Xie each caught half.

Neither would give way.

They even came to blows, setting the whole city talking.

In the end, my sister had no choice but to push me forward.

“My little sister is beautiful and gentle, and bears a strong resemblance to me.”

“General Xie, marry her and think of me when you look at her.

Please, don’t make this harder for me.”

In my last life, Xie Chenzhou had married me unwillingly.

He despised me and never so much as touched me.

I gave as good as I got, with cold, mocking words.

“My sister simply didn’t want you.

Stop flattering yourself.”

“She’s already showing, and you still haven’t let her go.”

And so we spent our whole lives bickering, loathing the sight of each other.

Now I had another life.

And I was back on the day my sister tossed her ball to choose a husband.