The Crown Princess of Fallen Chu

[Palace intrigue and political schemes + physical and emotional angst + past lives and present|Not an exclusive-pairing story; the chancellor is the only virgin male lead. The heroine is brilliant and calculating, but frail and frequently ill]

The Chu Kingdom has fallen. Xue Rangyi, once its noble crown princess, is now a male concubine in a general's villa. An imperial edict summons her into the palace, where the stern and imposing ruler of Qin treats her with uniquely indulgent kindness.

Rangyi doesn't know that he has coveted her for years and laid his plans long ago. She was a loyal subject and virtuous consort, while he is a wise ruler and worthy man. How could she not be moved? But she is a subject of Chu, and he is the ruler of Qin... so a happy ending was never meant to be.

So she conspires with Zhao and seduces the Qin chancellor, doing whatever it takes for the fallen crown prince of Chu, her husband, who is imprisoned in Qin. Her snowy, plum-blossom purity has been stained by the dust of the world, and she can never be as innocent as she once was.

–

The emperor is deep as an abyss and towering as a mountain; the general is proud and bloodthirsty; the chancellor is restrained and self-controlled... Rangyi maneuvers between the three, but never forgets where she came from.

On the Three Lives Stone, the plum spirit melts into snow; a dark swallow flies to a branch; nine plots of pure orchids grow beneath a tree; and a wisp of sword spirit longs for her to turn back in her next life.

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*The ending is one-on-one and happy, but the journey isn't. The emperor is the official male lead.

*Expect both physical and emotional angst, possibly including miscarriage and childbirth.

*There is no guarantee who the father of the child is.

*If you can't keep reading, please drop the story in good time. Perhaps we'll meet again in another tale.