The Apocalypse Big Shot’s Sweet, Lovable Wife

The Great Xia Dynasty, the Marquis Yongchang’s residence.

The night was as dark as ink, with a brilliant river of stars overhead. Today was the first birthday celebration of the marquis’s legitimate daughter, Ruan Qingqing, since she came of age. The residence had been decked with lanterns and decorations, filled with laughter and chatter. Even after the guests had left, a trace of warm festivity lingered.

But Ruan Qingqing slipped away alone, gathering up her skirt as she quietly made her way to the highest building in the back garden, the Star-Gazing Tower. The young woman wore a soft silver gauze dress embroidered with jasmine, with a rosy sheer shawl draped over her arms. A gold hairpin inlaid with kingfisher feathers swayed gently in her dark hair as she walked, its tassels tinkling softly. She had dismissed her personal maid, wanting to admire this celestial wonder alone. The Imperial Astronomical Bureau had predicted that tonight would bring a rare alignment of five planets, unseen in a century.

The tower rose high above the ground, and the night breeze brushed coolly across her warm cheeks.

“It really happened...” Ruan Qingqing leaned against the vermilion railing and looked up. The strange spectacle in the night sky was reflected in her clear eyes. Five enormous stars shimmered with golden, green, blue, red, and yellow light, slowly forming a dazzling string of pearls. Their brilliance surged until it nearly eclipsed the moon.

The light was so intense that it carried an unquestionable, awe-inspiring might.

Suddenly, Ruan Qingqing felt her heart skip a beat. The air around her seemed to freeze, then twist and spin violently. The tower beneath her feet, the marquis’s residence behind her, the starry sky before her... Everything shattered like a glass mirror, splintering into dazzling streams of light that swallowed her whole.

A violent, dizzying sensation of being pulled apart swept over her. Before she could even cry out, she lost consciousness completely.