The Power Minister Becomes Empress: The Mad Emperor Takes Her by Force

[Mad Emperor × Cunning Legitimate Daughter|Possessive Love|The Long Road to Winning Her Back|Pregnant Runaway|Tragic Romance]

Reborn as a cannon-fodder legitimate daughter, she’s facing the execution of her entire family from the start?

A modern woman with two doctorates, she transmigrates into the life of a legitimate daughter in the Chief Councillor’s household, where everyone walks all over her. Her half-sister is a scheming sweetheart, the crown prince forces a marriage, and the inner household is rife with hidden currents. No matter: she uses her brains to become a top-tier player.

But the Seventh Prince, who seems as gentle as jade, is the real madman.

He offers her a handkerchief embroidered with the character “Jue” and smiles as he proposes they work together. She thinks she’s the one holding the pieces, never realizing she’s been trapped in his cage all along.

On their wedding night, he offers seven heads as his betrothal gift and slips a bloodstained jade hairpin into her hair. “I offer you my empire as a bride price.” She smiles and drinks the nuptial wine. It isn’t poisoned; it holds only the hatred she’s bitten down on.

He shackles her ankle with a golden chain, threatens her with the lives of the entire Shen family, and forces her to submit by holding her younger brother’s life over her head.

She fakes a pregnancy, pretends to be weak, lays traps, and forges alliances with the vassal princes, sharpening her blade until it gleams. Yet when a rain of arrows flies, he shields her with his own back.

He collapses in a pool of blood, gripping her wrist. “You can only die by my side.”

Later, he loses his memory and remembers only the happiest days they shared.

She falls in love with him all over again, helps him review memorials, feeds him medicine, and bears his children. He thinks it’s a gift, never knowing that every night she stares blankly at the broken hairpin hidden beneath his pillow, the one once coated with poison meant to kill him.

He spends half his life repaying his debt; she spends the rest of hers forgiving him.

At the end of his life, he leaves her with one last wish: “May we not be born into an emperor’s family in our next lives. I’ll dress in red for you, and we’ll be an ordinary married couple.”