(Inspired by the Ming dynasty, set in an imaginary ancient world)
(Sweet romance + political intrigue + revenge)
(Love at first sight × love that grows over time)
He Shaozong was cold and ruthless, with a merciless streak.
As a member of the Imperial Guards, he was the sharpest blade in the emperor’s hand.
He could make officials tremble and children stop crying at night.
Yet for all his lofty position, he lived like a rat in the dark, cut off from the light.
Until one day, the brightest sun in the capital fell into his arms.
He began to wonder how he could keep that sun shining forever.
-
Zhu Yu was born into a wealthy and distinguished family. Growing up, she got everything she wanted.
She laughed and cursed as she pleased, changed moods in an instant, and never bowed her head.
There was no one in the capital she didn’t dare offend.
Then her own father, the Marquis of Yongqing, was framed and killed, her husband was besieged and murdered, her cousin the Crown Prince suddenly died, and her aunt, the Empress, asked to be confined in the palace. Everything changed.
After ten years as a widow, Zhu Yu had tasted every hardship life had to offer.
In the dead of night, she often dreamed of a broad-shouldered man holding her in an unrelenting embrace.
She cursed him as a deadbeat and a bastard, yet woke to find her pillow damp with tears.
Only then did she realize that in their ten years of marriage, the bastard who had claimed all her love and hate had long since become an irreplaceable part of her life.
So when she opened her eyes and found herself back on her wedding day, twenty years earlier, Zhu Yu pretended to be aggrieved and began teasing her “first-time-seen” new husband.
“You shouldn’t strain your back.”
“Does that mean I’m not allowed to touch you?”
