The Job of an Imperial Concubine

Oh worm, this one was written after the other two novels? I just assumed it was written in this order:

1) TBAVW: very Cinderella-ish/fairy-tale-like with a deep happy ending & lots of soap-opera-esque revenge
2) 8TT: somewhat fairy-tale-like but more laid back & realistic with its female charas of grey morality
3) JOIC: the realistic & somewhat pessimistic anti-fairytale where the MC met the ML too late

Personally, I prefer the different tiers of realism/fantasy in these 3 works. If they were all the same with a doting faithful ML & a constantly scheming MC, they wouldn't be unique & they'd just be clones of every other palace intrigue novel.

I wouldn't put this one on the same level as Black Bellied Prince's Stunning Abandoned Consort or the novels where the ML is straight up abusive & controlling to a yandere level & the MC is a stupidly OP cabbage who lets herself be abused constantly despite being OP. >_>

I mean those novels usually have other characters or the author defending the ML's actions & the MC excusing it in her POV. The MC of JOIC isn't that stupid & neither is the author. 

Nah.. there is nothing like that. I was so curious after reading your comment so I MTLed the novel, and the ending was something that i expected. It s like what the other comments said that this novel is what would happen if the leads on TBAVW met after the ML became the emperor 

Noble Lady Ning
she hate the harem at first. she entered the harem because her family is weak and needs some power and she passed the selection because of her pretty face (it's even prettier than noble consort shu who's known as the prettiest concubine in the harem). at first she was kinda favoured by the emperor because of her face and he slept at her place for a few times (it also makes noble lady ning who dislikes the emperor becomes attracted to him after that because he treats her tenderly). even when zhuang luoyan (mc) got hurt and almost drowned in the lotus pond, the emperor was still at noble lady ning's place. but during mc's recovery, the emperor doesn't go to any other places and often accompanies mc instead. it makes noble lady ning feels cold and think of how the emperor forget about her. after zhuang luoyan got pregnant (iirc, zhuang luoyan was already a consort rank at that time so she's called consort zhao, zhao is her title), there was a time when she meets other high-ranking concubines including consort rou, noble consort shu, and a kneeling noble lady ning. it turns out noble lady ning talked about other concubines behind her backs and consort rou punished her for it. then the emperor came and noble lady ning thought he finally remembers her and tries to make herself look pitiful. what a pity he only cares about consort zhao and implicitly tells that consort rou can punish noble lady ning however she pleases if she breached etiquette. after that the emperor leaves, followed by other concubines except consort rou and noble lady ning. then consort rou told noble lady ning about how she should think of her place and how she's forgotten by the emperor now. noble lady ning retaliated by saying that it's the same with consort rou, but then consort rou said that even if she's not really favoured now, she has a hugh rank and the emperor is someone who remembers the past so as long as she doesn't commit any heavy mistakes to the currently favoured concubine (consort zhou), she'll be okay.
when consort zhou's pregnancy is already big, she noticed how there are people who want to scheme against her unborn child so she changes all the head servants into the more experienced ones, including the head eunuch who's responsible with the garden in her palace. the eunuch noticed some pots of flower has been sabotaged and the soil has some weird substances so he reported to consort zhou, she raised his ranks as gratitude. then she tells the case to the emperor and empress, the latter is absolutely horrified because at that time her family power was already shaken up bit by bit by the emperor so she's afraid if consort zhou is hurt then she'll lose her empress position. after the emperor and empress came, they asked the servants but all of them said they're innocent so the emperor got mad and threw some teacups to the ground. then the low-ranking eunuchs who's responsible bringing the soil and pots said that they met some servants from noble consort xian's place before arriving to consort zhou's. the emperor called noble consort xian for questioning but it turns out she's been schemed at and the servants are actually new servants from noble lady ning (who's already promoted as qian wanyi)'s place. the emperor immediately ordered to search and investigates qian wanyi's place. there, they found a medicinal book that shows signs of recent reading on the pages that describes the herbs that's actually found at the soil. if the herbs are mixed and drunk by someone, it can cause immediate death, but if it's been given/inhaled to a pregnant woman for a long time, even if the baby is safe, but the baby will have some deficiency in the future. it makes the emperor and empress very angry and asked why would she do that since killing the child in consort zhou's womb won't do any good for her? then qian wanyi answered the empress, it went roughly like this,
"this concubine knows that many people are not satisfied with consort zhou's pregnancy, yet im the only one who takes action. im afraid even your highness (the empress) doesn't even want the child to be born."
it rages the emperor since he heard someone said that the fetus has soul, and if the fetus heard someone won't welcome their arrival, then they might be gone. so, the emperor threw a teacup to qian wanyi while saying like this,
"my child is the expectation of the people of the world. what's the use of a poisonous woman like you!"
after that, the emperor bestowed silk for qian wanyi as the punishment (punishment by hanging). 

Order is actually the reverse.

JOIC was written in 2012

TBAVW was written in 2013, probably in response to the flames the author got for have a "scum" male lead. Thus the ML for this novel became essentially monogamous after MC transmigrated over.

8TT was written in 2014, probably in response to further complaints from the readership about an "impure" male lead. Thus the ML for this novel was a virgin at marriage, and monogamous to MC afterwards.

Other romance novels in ancient settings that the author wrote after 8TT ("Like Pearls and Jade", "I'm Just That Kind Of Girl", "Ascending Do Not Disturb", "Pretentious Time") also all had monogamous ML who was a virgin before marrying the MC. I feel like the general trend was that as the author got more popular, she also caved into peer pressure and her ML became more and more cliche/PC rather than realistic, in order to get more positive reviews / less flames. 

@sleepchaser could you give us spoilers regarding the empress dowager? And who is scheming against the Mc? 

Interestingly, this novel is significantly more popular with Chinese audience. On the publisher's website, this novel (1,241,947,008) has almost double the points that TBAVW (793,880,51) and ETT (751,049,600) have.

From the parts that I skimmed, I liked ETT more than this novel too. 

This one should work https://www.sto.cc/book-118062-1.html o: 

Who was the concubine that tried to frame the MC?
Can you also spoil what happens to the empress dowager and the Two concubines from her maiden family?