Reborn, I Cling to the Ailing Prince for All I'm Worth

Shen He was wrongly married to the crown prince, and her entire family was slaughtered. She drank poison, was stripped of her title as empress, and died in a side hall. A vast curtain of snowy mist mercilessly shrouded Yongqiu Palace.

Heaven had not forsaken her. She was reborn at the age of sixteen.

Seizing her chance, Shen He forced a marriage to the frail, gentle Third Prince, Jiang Yi. She borrowed his influence, clung to him for support, and vowed to share every triumph and humiliation, live and die alongside him, and tie herself to him for good.

The world did not understand, and people slandered her, but she paid no heed to their gossip. Jiang Yi knew she wasn’t sincere, yet he wanted to play this game of cat and mouse with her. He had always enjoyed stirring up trouble from the shadows, watching the board descend into chaos as the pieces fought one another. He knew full well this was why Shen He had chosen him.

The story began with Shen He dramatically throwing herself onto him. He could only play along with her little performance.

“Stop pretending. I’ve never seen acting this exaggerated, not even in a storybook.”

“Just play along. The frail, sickly Third Prince wouldn’t have the strength to push me away, would he?”

The performance went on a little too long. Perhaps Shen He and Jiang Yi could no longer tell what was real and what was not. They were simply two wounded people, licking each other’s wounds and huddling together for warmth.

At the end of the story, Jiang Yi watched Shen He’s retreating figure, the red ribbon in her hair whipping high in the wind. They stood together atop the mountains. She had always belonged to the wilds. Shen He looked back at him, the breeze tossing her hair. He stepped forward and walked beside her, hand in hand.

“If you don’t wish to live within palace walls, I’ll travel the realm with you.”