Synopsis of The Fallen Noble of the Nine Heavens
In his previous life, Xiao Chengyu was the most beloved Third Prince of the Great Zhao. A master of both letters and arms, his fame shook the realm. But on the day of his coming-of-age ceremony, he was framed, and more than three hundred members of his household were slaughtered before the Golden Throne Hall. As blood soaked the jade steps, he looked at the poisonous smile in the emperor’s eyes and died with hatred in his heart.
When he opened his eyes again, he was a little beggar on a street corner in the West Market of the capital, wrapped in rags and stinking from head to toe. Memories of his former status and splendor collided with the cold leftovers before him. Xiao Chengyu clenched his mud-caked hands. In this life, he wanted no empire stretching for thousands of miles. He only wanted to find the real culprit behind his family’s massacre and make those devils in human skin learn what it meant to sink into the mire.
But when survival itself was a luxury, a girl in a moon-white robe kept squatting at the entrance to the ruined temple where he hid. Her name was Su Qinghuan, and she was an apprentice at an apothecary. She always said his “upturned eyes make him look like a nobleman in a painting,” then gave him half a roasted sweet potato or made a crooked grasshopper out of straw to cheer him up. At first, Xiao Chengyu was wary of her. Then, one night, while following a lead, he was surrounded. Su Qinghuan knocked out his pursuers with a pestle and, panting, told him, “Your eyes shine like stars. You shouldn’t die here.”
Only then did he realize that she always brought him hot porridge when he was starving, stood in front of him when street thugs kicked and beat him, and even saved up half a month’s wages to buy him the steamed milk pudding he’d casually mentioned wanting to try. But when Xiao Chengyu used her medical studies as an excuse to get into the Imperial Medical Academy and investigate the old case, he discovered half a dragon-patterned jade pendant sewn into Su Qinghuan’s swaddling clothes. It was the pendant the late Empress had given him, the one that should have gone up in flames with him...
Male and female characters
Xiao Chengyu (before being reborn: Third Prince; after being reborn
