Alas, the Present!

Name: Alas, the Present!
Author: A Wisp of Dandelion

叹今朝！

by A Wisp of Dandelion (一缕蒲公英)

Status: Completed
Length: 414k Words
Genre: Ancient Romance
Subgenre: Palace & Household Intrigue
Updated: 1y ago
English: Request a translation

Read on Fanqie

Synopsis

[Historical Fiction Only + No System or Golden Finger + Palace Intrigue and Political Scheming + Court Conflicts + Inspirational Strong Female Lead’s Growth]

Key point: The heroine suffers terribly, and the story is very angsty. Read with caution!

Mu Zhaozhao is the eldest daughter of the Chancellor’s household, but no one has cared about her since she was little. Her birth parents consider her a bringer of bad luck and leave her to fend for herself in the most remote courtyard of the residence.

Have you ever seen a little girl who was left in a shabby courtyard from the day she was born?

Have you ever seen a girl who was abandoned from birth, despised, ignored by her own parents, and cruelly bullied by the other children?

Have you ever seen a girl who was promised by the late emperor to the emperor’s most beloved prince, an essential candidate in the succession struggle, only for her own father to maliciously break off the engagement? All to secure happiness for his second daughter, at the cost of his eldest daughter’s betrothal?

And have you ever seen a father publicly accuse his own daughter of being unchaste, of no longer being a virgin, in front of the entire court, as his reason for breaking the engagement?

In an instant, Mu Zhaozhao became the most despised laughingstock in all of Kyoto!

Later, Mu Zhaozhao thought her birth father still felt a little affection for her.

She agreed to go to the grasslands and become someone’s sworn daughter, as her father had asked.

Only afterward did she learn that it had all been a scheme devised by her father to secure his second daughter’s future.

No one ever gave Mu Zhaozhao any love, but she still knew how to love.

She, too, had a boy she had admired since childhood.

He was Pei Xuan, the great general of the realm, a man in the spotlight, adored by all.

She loved him, but the shadows of her childhood also made her afraid of him.

She had felt inferior and timid, but she had also tried to fight for herself.

In the end, however, class prejudice and the vast gulf in their status shattered every beautiful illusion!

Stats

199Chapters

404Reads · 30 days

38.4kReads · all time

25Listens

More by this author

Help! The Tsundere Big Sister Wants Me to Marry Her

Ji Xiang’s Double Personality: Double the Lovestruck Sweetness

After a Successful Marriage Scheme: The Possessive Tycoon Is Obsessed

True Tales of the Supernatural

Secrets Within a Marriage

After I Lost My Memory, My Nemesis Became My Caged Bird

Get on Your Knees, Little Brother: Big Sister’s Feeling Reckless

After My Kingdom Fell: The Tyrant Held Me by the Waist

Young Master Lu's Darling Wife Has Him Bent Over Backward

Madam, Run! The Unhinged Big Shot's Hands Are Itching Again

I’m Done with the Green Tea Girl I Pined For, I Choose the Spicy Heiress

After My Stepfather Died, I Trampled His Daughter Underfoot

In booklists 40

See all

Seeking High-Quality Historical Romance, No Transmigration, Rebirth, or System

I like food, palace intrigue, the imperial examinations, political schemes, and crime-solving. On Tomato, I’ve read The Strongest Female Grand Secretary Rises Against the Odds; for palace intrigue, Zhaohua Weiyang, Palace Willows, and Deep Palace Strategy: The Tale of Qingzhi; for food, Chang’an Snack Shop (I can’t remember if it was on Tomato).

936Books15.8MViews4hUpdated

Looking for Pure Historical Settings: No Transmigration, Quick Transmigration, or Rebirth

Ahhh, almost every historical-style story I’ve found involves transmigration, rebirth, or quick transmigration. I want a pure historical setting, with a sweet and gentle female lead. Thanks 🙏🙏

833Books47.1MViews12hUpdated

Looking for High-Quality Historical Romance!

Lately I’ve been looking for an ancient-era romance with realistic, detailed descriptions of everyday life, but it’s so hard to find. I don’t need some grand epic. I just want to read about the daily lives of women in ancient times.

1.1kBooks4.4MViews21hUpdated

Angst! More Angst!! The Kind That Makes You Lose Ten Pounds Just From Reading!!!

931Books216.8MViews1dUpdated

Angsty Stories That Put the Heroine Through Hell, Really, Really Badly

I want angst.

1.3kBooks108.6MViews1dUpdated

Looking for Angsty Stories That Break Your Heart and Keep You Up at Night

The kind that’ll make you cry your eyes out.

1.1kBooks156.8MViews1dUpdated

Heartbreakingly Angsty Stories That Make Your Heart Hurt

I've read quite a lot of angsty stories before, and I'm usually a bit sentimental. I love listening to sad songs and hearing sad stories, too. I've already read "Bone-Deep Crisis", "He Said Our Love Came Too Late", and "May You Shine as Bright as the Stars"... I'd prefer something with lots of chapters, since I'm a night owl.

1.4kBooks101.8MViews2dUpdated

Protagonists Who Get Less Sympathy the More Considerate They Are

The more sensible you are, the less anyone cares about you. So obedient and humble.

861Books19.1MViews2dUpdated

Proper Historical Romance: No Golden Fingers, Just High-Quality Stories with Sound Values

Looking for books similar to "Bound by Spring's Embrace".

1kBooks17.1MViews2dUpdated

Historical Romance, Historical Romance, Historical Romance: Pure Historical Fiction, No Rebirth, No Transmigration

Friends, I'm looking for a purely historical romance. I've had nothing to read for ages. Please save me...

1kBooks25.8MViews2dUpdated

Pure Angst, With the Male Lead Tormenting the Female Lead!!!!!!

I want angst from beginning to end, not the kind where the leads love each other but still can't be together in the end. I want the male lead to love someone else and the female lead to suffer through pure heartbreak.

788Books8.3MViews2dUpdated

Angsty Stories With a Sweet, Quiet Female Lead

Angst.

1.2kBooks61.5MViews2dUpdated

Historical Romance with Power Struggles and a Minister with Obsessive, Pathological Possessiveness. Recommendations, Please

644Books46.9MViews2dUpdated

Top 10 Tearjerkers!

Please tell me your number-one angsty novel, and the most heartbreaking stories you know. I’ve been feeling down lately and want to read something tragic!

855Books19.9MViews2dUpdated

Historical Romance!! An Extremely Possessive, Jealous, Yandere Male Lead!!

616Books13.9MViews2dUpdated

Pure Historical Romance: No Being Reborn, No Transmigration, No Farming, and No System

I only like sweet romance. Please don't recommend anything that isn't this kind of story. I'm a bit picky.

184Books1.7MViews3dUpdated

Truly Stunning Historical Romance

997Books28.3MViews4dUpdated

Pure Historical Romance

No transmigration, no being reborn, no System.

826Books6.8MViews4dUpdated

Angst Novels with Extreme, Brutal Suffering!

1kBooks57.2MViews4dUpdated

A Sensible Heroine Who Breaks Your Heart, A Little Afraid of the Hero at First, Marriage First, Love Later

Looking for books like "Mr. Shen's Tender Love". The heroine is so sensible that it breaks your heart because of her family situation. Her family forces her to marry the hero. At first, she's a little afraid of him and is cautious about everything, worried he'll be unhappy, and then the hero...

171Books5.4MViews4dUpdated