Farming in the Cold Palace: The Sickly Emperor Won’t Let Me Go

[After becoming an abandoned consort confined to the Cold Palace, Shen Yunshang only wants to farm in peace.] [One-on-one romance, both devoted to each other, an obsessive tyrant × a farming physician consort, ultra-sweet pampering + lighthearted, satisfying read] From the start, all she has is a patch of wasteland, one loyal servant, and a Divine Shennong Spirit Spring she can carry with her. She grows spirit vegetables, plants medicinal herbs, and raises spirit cats, turning the dilapidated Cold Palace into a secluded paradise. Life is pleasant, until she finds a handsome, gravely ill man covered in blood in the back courtyard. She kindly treats him, never imagining he'd latch on to her and refuse to leave. He is Xuan Moyu, a tyrant who is ruthless and decisive, poisoned by a deadly toxin, and cold and sinister. But in her little courtyard, he becomes a clingy, possessive, oversized puppy. “Shangshang, the medicine is bitter. I need a kiss to get better.” “You dare look at someone else? I'll send them all off to build the Great Wall!” While the imperial consorts compete to outshine one another, Shen Yunshang keeps herself busy with construction projects, medicinal cuisine, and gardening classes. A scheming concubine frames her? Shen Yunshang turns the tables and makes her suffer the consequences, leaving her sobbing with a face full of red welts. A rigid imperial physician questions her skills? One giant pumpkin nourished by the Spirit Spring sends him questioning his whole life, and he ends up begging to become her student. Later, when an epidemic hits the capital, she presents a prescription and earns immeasurable merit. On the night of the palace coup, she uses nature as her formation to help him restore order. Those who once mocked her can now only kneel and beg her for a fruit or vegetable, or a good prescription. When Shen Yunshang is made empress and takes charge of the imperial seal, everyone expects the palace rivalry to intensify. Instead, she takes the emperor's hand and points to the vast stretch of farmland they built together. “Your Majesty, we should go back and water our pumpkins.” (Watch a modern woman use the healing power of nature to tame an obsessive, powerful, icy tyrant.)