After My Husband Died, His Archrival Married Me

[A Noble Consort from a Fallen Kingdom + A Ruthless New Emperor, Neither Lead Is Chaste + A Comeback After Being Taken by Force + Palace Intrigue with the Female Lead Crushing Her Rivals Head-On] The Han-Chu kingdom’s Noble Consort, Dou Yunying, was a peerless beauty who once enjoyed the old emperor’s boundless favor. But when the kingdom fell, her husband died and the palace was toppled. She plunged from the clouds and was discarded like trash, even forced to die for her honor and driven to assassinate the new emperor. Xuan Zhang, King of Eastern Wu, is a ruthless, iron-blooded conqueror who destroyed his enemy kingdom but spared the disgraced consort. He takes her under his protection, partly to conquer her and partly because of an emotion he can’t put into words. Everyone says that a widowed consort from a fallen kingdom is nothing but a bird the new emperor entertains in his spare time, a tool to placate former officials, with no place to stand in the new imperial harem. The former empress dowager despises her, the new emperor’s consorts scheme against her, and even her family treats her like a pawn. Dou Yunying smiles brightly. Since fate has spared her and she hasn’t killed her enemy, she must make the most of the life she’s barely reclaimed. A mere ornament? A plaything? Let’s see who comes out on top in this palace. Everyone expects her to fade into obscurity and scrape by to survive. Who could have guessed she’d go from Jiafu Palace straight into the emperor’s heart, holding her newborn prince as she rises from Noble Consort to the very summit no one else can reach… Everyone sees her as a drifting weed, yet she has roots as firm as stone. At first, Xuan Zhang is confident he’ll win her. Later, he falls deeply in love. The scheming Princess Consort, the charming Secondary Consort Guo, and the refined Lady Sun all enter the fray one after another. Neither lead is chaste. The male lead has former consorts, and the female lead has a deceased husband. She keeps her head down at first, plays the fool while quietly gaining the upper hand in the middle, then cuts a bloody path through her enemies in the later stages. Many plot threads are laid in the first ten chapters, and the palace intrigue begins after chapter ten. A more traditional palace-intrigue novel. The heroine isn’t a conventional tragic heroine. She is clear-eyed and grows stronger.