the maid part is a normal daily life in the inner palace. Its sad but FL wasnt the onlyone doing those things. The other consorts will "punish" eacothers maids to asert dominace or a maid will "go missing" never to be hard from again and the exuse will be "she left the palace".
In the novel when FL first entered the palace as the lovest lvl consort, one of her maids was disfigured for "being rude and walking in the way of head consort" another "went missing" and was found stranged, raped and thrown into the river a few days later with the Empress Downgard having said "the maid left because she counldnt stand FL" but in reality she had her muderd because she defeneded FL.
The Palace is toxic and always has been, its just that when FL is there all the flaws are up in your face.
Even with FL gone, maids are till being hit and scared. Its just covered up by Empress Downgard who hated FL.
We all like a strong Fl but nearly killing a maid or drowning ur husband is way too much....ig （￣へ￣）(⊙…⊙ )...okay I just read the first 6 chaps...n I don't know the story yet......and what I said is purely based on what I read in the first few chapters...