A Wounded Heart from a Fated Mistake in My Past Life, a Prince’s Tender Love in This One

In her previous life, Shen Xiyan supported a man for more than three years and even took a deadly tribulation in his place, leaving her poisoned. As she lay dying, the man used the mandarin-duck brocade she had embroidered to marry her younger sister. She demanded, “Why couldn’t you wait until I was dead to marry her? Why did you have to make me see that everything I did for you was worthless?” He replied, “You did it all willingly. Nobody forced you.” Reborn, she swears she’ll be the one reaching for the stars, never a stepping stone. She tears off the shackles of noblewomen, rides through the streets on horseback, and stuns the Hanlin Academy with her poetry, turning the brilliance she once hid into a wildfire. But the ruthless prince goes mad for her. The more haughty she becomes, the more obsessed he grows. When a rising court official presents her with an imperial consort’s robes and asks for her hand, the prince simply carries in a phoenix crown and bridal robes. “I offer half my kingdom as your bride price. Will you be the most carefree princess consort in the land?” As the court erupts in uproar, the former top candidate in the imperial examinations gets drunk in a dilapidated courtyard, clutching the old sachet she embroidered and laughing and crying at once.