Transmigration: Reverse Exploitation, the System Works for Me

Xi Qiao was dreaming again.

She knew she was dreaming, dreaming of the scene before she regained her senses.

In her dream, she slept in the canopy of a towering, pale golden tree.

The leaves of the giant tree are quite peculiar, with three leaves per leaf, as fine as gold and jade, and shaped like a set of chimes.

Soft sunlight streamed down from the tree canopy and enveloped her.

"Mother……"

The calls came from all around, the sound distant and mysterious, like the celestial chants of Brahma.

"I'll wait for you to come back."

Amidst the ethereal voice, she was lifted up by a gentle force and sent out of the tree canopy, where a dark doorway slowly took shape not far from her.

At that moment, a ball of light the size of a fist appeared out of thin air, transforming into a long rainbow that crashed into Xi Qiao.

"How dare you!" A voice, seemingly mocking yet not laughing, rang out.

A blurry human figure materialized from the golden light, standing between Xi Qiao and the ball of light. The ball of light abruptly stopped the moment it appeared, and its originally dazzling light contracted and subsided in an instant, as if it were about to flee.

However, the person draped in radiant light raised their hand and grasped it. As the golden light surged, the orb of light became dim and lifeless.

"The system? Perhaps it will be useful..." The pleasant murmur was the last sound Xi Qiao heard.

On the warm kang, Xi Qiao suddenly opened her eyes. The weightlessness in her dream made her gasp in fear, and her heart pounded violently in her chest.

After catching her breath for a while, she sat up, grabbed the cotton-padded coat next to her and put it on. She walked unsteadily to the table, poured herself a cup of cold tea, and sipped it slowly.

Before the tea was finished, a palace maid with a small double bun hairstyle quietly pushed open the door carrying a food box.

The palace maid saw Xi Qiao drinking cold tea and quickly snatched the cup from her hand. "Oh dear, Sister Chunrong, you've just recovered, how can you drink cold tea? Please stop drinking it, I'll get you a hot one."

Chunrong, her current name, is a first-class palace maid serving the Empress Dowager.

A confidante of the former Consort De and the current Empress Dowager Uya.

The woman who works under Zhenghuang's banner, whose real name is Yu Lu, is 25 years old this year.

His father served as a fifth-rank official in the Guangchu Division of the Imperial Household Department during the reign of the previous emperor. After the new emperor ascended the throne, he was transferred to a post as a fifth-rank assistant prefect.

However, the promotion of a close advisor to the emperor and a sub-prefect of Shanxi was merely a demotion in disguise.

Xi Qiao didn't know why she became this head palace maid. She only remembered that when she was walking on the road, everything suddenly went black and she lost consciousness.

But after she fully regained consciousness and became Chunrong, she began to have dreams from time to time.

In her dream, she was a towering, pale golden tree, and she was curled up on a branch wider than a kang (a heated brick bed), as if she were dead and completely unaware of anything.

Sometimes I hear the sound of a great bell in my dreams, and sometimes I can faintly smell an indescribable sweet fragrance.

Sometimes a tiger-headed, one-horned cub would gently nuzzle her forehead, and sometimes a young bird with golden feathers would flutter through her hair.

It sounds bizarre and hard to believe, but Xi Qiao has a gut feeling that it's all true.

Today is the fifth day since she transmigrated here, and it is also the coronation ceremony of Emperor Yongzheng.

"It's nothing, I only had a couple of sips." Xi Qiao gestured for the maid Qingzhu to sit down. "Why are you here at this hour?"

Because she was ill, Qingzhu served her two meals a day, as well as her medicine and tea. However, it was around three o'clock in the afternoon, not yet time for the palace maids and eunuchs to have dinner.

Qingzhu opened the food box with a beaming smile. "The Empress bestowed some pastries upon me, and Sister Chunmao asked me to bring a portion to you."

The food box contained a plate of ham pastries, savory, fragrant, and oily, a portion reserved for high-ranking empresses in the palace.

Xi Qiao smiled and pushed the pastries in front of Qingzhu, "I haven't had an appetite these past few days because of the medicine, so you can have these."

Qingzhu's eyes lit up, and she hurriedly thanked Xi Qiao.

Is there any other happy occasion today?

Although the Empress Dowager was always kind to the palace maids who served her, she would not easily give away such delicious snacks as ham pastries, let alone give them away in such large platters.

There must be other joyous events besides the emperor's ascension to the throne.

“My sister is wise. At the grand court assembly, the Emperor issued an imperial decree to confer the title of Empress Chun Yuan upon the deceased primary consort and to bestow upon Lord Fei Yanggu the title of First-Class Duke Cheng'en.”

Xi Qiao forced a smile, "That is truly a joyous occasion, no wonder Your Majesty is so happy."

Empress Chun Yuan, whose maiden name was Ulanara Rouze.

As early as when she obtained Chunrong's memories, she knew that she had transmigrated into the world of Zhen Huan.

Last winter, Emperor Kangxi fell critically ill and, before his death, passed the throne to his fourth son, Yinzhen.

Both of the new emperor's wives came from the Ulanara clan. His first wife, Ulanara Rouze, died young, and his second wife, Ulanara Yixiu, was the half-sister of the first wife.

These two names alone tell a lot.

After seeing Qingzhu off, Xi Qiao sat down in bed.

The winters in Beijing were extremely cold. When Chunrong was ordered to deliver snacks to the emperor, she was soaked by rain and snow and developed a high fever that night, which she eventually died from.

It's a pity that this young woman, who had painstakingly plotted for twelve years to become the Empress Dowager's confidante and was about to avenge her mother, passed away at this very moment.

Chunrong's mother, Wu, was chosen seventeen years ago to be the wet nurse of the deceased eldest prince, Honghui, of the new emperor. After the eldest prince died young, Wu and the others who served him were punished with caning. Wu did not survive and died on the night she was carried home.

When Wu passed away, Chunrong was 11 years old, and her younger sister was only 3 years old.

Thinking of the original owner's younger sister, Xi Qiao frowned.

Chunrong's younger sister was none other than Yu Ying'er, the beautiful Kunqu opera singer.

Xi Qiao leaned against the headboard and exhaled a breath of stale air. The registration period for palace maids had already passed, and he was afraid that the Yu family had already sent Yu Ying'er's name to the Imperial Household Department.

After Wu's death, Yu's father took a concubine who suited his taste as his wife, and the two sisters, Chunrong and her sister, did not have a happy life in the Yu family.

Bondservant women were required to be selected for the palace upon reaching a certain age, but connections and money could facilitate this. However, since Yu's father was to be sent to that poor and remote place, he naturally refused to spend more money.

Yu Ying'er is a typical example of a petty person who becomes arrogant and unruly after gaining power.

That kind of people……

Xi Qiao pinched the bridge of his nose, feeling a headache coming on. When Chunrong left, she was filled with resentment and bitterness. She hated the two Ulanara sisters for killing their mother, hated her father for favoring his concubine over his wife and suppressing the legitimate wife with the illegitimate son, and hated herself for being so insignificant and powerless to protect her younger sister.

Well, since I've used someone else's body, I should at least repay them in some way.