The Cowardly General

Also known as: The Princess Bride Says She Doesn't Dare, and the Gentle Emperor Coaxes Her Softly

[I picked up a crybaby on the way to a political marriage and raised her with my own hands into the empress who ruled the harem]

On the day she was sent away to marry for the sake of peace, Yu Shu hid behind a rockery, trembling as she cried.

Then she stumbled into a pair of smiling eyes.

Song Qingyan, the emperor himself, bent down and wiped away her tears. “Noble Lady Yu, what are you afraid of?”

That gentle voice became her only lifeline in the depths of the palace.

**

Eight years passed. The princess once too timid to raise her head or speak

became the Lady Shu of popular rumor, “as beautiful as an immortal and blessed with both talent and intelligence.”

She dared to laugh without restraint in the imperial garden, and dared to rise on tiptoe and tug at the emperor’s jade pendant as she cooed:

“A Yan, I love you a little more today than I did yesterday.”

Song Qingyan turned a bronze mirror toward her instead. “Little Shu, you should love the person in the mirror first.”

**

One snowy night, when she was kneeling in the ancestral hall, he came with a lantern:

“I have no need for a wooden doll who knows all the rules.”

And when she was too timid to vie for his favor, he gently placed the imperial seal in her palm:

“My realm needs the boldest person by my side.”

When an envoy from an enemy state mocked her as a “tribute girl,” Yu Shu refuted him three times before the court, leaving him speechless.

Back at the palace, she suddenly burst into tears. “Was I… too harsh?”

Song Qingyan rested his forehead against hers and laughed:

“What are you afraid of? The more brilliantly you shine, the more it proves that all those years ago, I, ”

“Picked up the one moon in all the world from behind that rockery.”

[One-on-one romance + devoted healing and growth + a self-doubting princess becomes an empress who stands shoulder to shoulder with the emperor + pampered wife]

“Don’t learn how to please people. Learn how to make everyone under heaven come and please you.”