I Make Myself a Pawn: Sending the Mad Emperor to His Grave

[Clear-headed heroine + A spectacular reckoning + Political schemes and mind games + No forgiveness]

Prince Li Yuanji said, “Ruyi, you’re the one who understands me. You’re the only person under heaven who truly knows my heart.”

Then he turned around and sacrificed my father as a scapegoat to secure military power, making all seventy-two members of my Liu family stepping stones on his rise to power.

He said, “Ruyi, for the sake of the great cause, you’ll have to suffer for now.”

The night I gave birth in prison, the emperor came in person and threw my newborn daughter into a brazier right in front of me.

Meanwhile, my dear husband was busy discussing his wedding date with a princess from the grasslands, paving his road to success with my blood and tears.

That night, Liu Ruyi, Princess of Jing, died in the flames.

The woman who crawled back from hell was Hong Mei, the most famous courtesan in all of Jinling.

When they met again,

he was the Prince of Zhenbei, powerful enough to command the realm and in control of a great army. Yet on a rainy night in Jiangnan, he stood outside my door and let the rain soak him all night, begging me for a single glance.

Red-eyed, he knelt before me and offered up a phoenix crown and wedding robes with both hands. “Ruyi, I’ve conquered the realm. The empress’s throne is yours. Come back to me.”

Right in front of him, I tossed the imperial decree naming me empress into the brazier.

“Li Yuanji, there’s one thing you’ve got wrong.”

I stamped out the ashes, smiling with seductive coldness. “I want your realm, and I want your life. As for your love? Even a dog wouldn’t want it.”

(Note: Every member of the heroine’s side is a villain, the heroine is clever, the male lead suffers both physically and emotionally, and she ends up happily alone.)