Cultivating Love Against All Odds

The world Lu Yunluo wakes into runs on game rules. There is a system, there are quests, there is a difficulty setting, and hers is set to hard. She opens her eyes in a mourning hall with two eunuchs standing by and a maid sobbing next to her, and works out that she is now the empress nobody wants, shut away in the Cold Palace. Cut off from everyone, she farms quietly through the system, writes a book about harem customs, and puts money aside so she can leave the palace eventually. Watching from a rooftop one day she takes a servant and a maid meeting in secret for the Emperor's wedding night. She sells her harem book to Ji Wujue, another man watching from the same roof, and gossips to him about the Emperor. What he hears startles him enough that he begins searching the palace for her. Her modern habits of mind serve her well in the harem, and she and Ji Wujue argue their way into something closer. As they get closer, the Empress Dowager and Bai Wuyao begin plotting against them. Ji Wujue helps her uncover who she really is. She works against the plots, and helps the palace through a plague and a famine, which wins her the goodwill of ordinary people. The Empress Dowager and Bai Wuyao come at her again, and Ji Wujue sets himself against the court to protect her.