Old Friends Amid the Mountains and Rivers of Great Zhou

The internet’s number one power-struggle tragedy. In this life, Crown Prince Song Yu claws his way up from the bottom to the very peak of power, where he meets the only moonlight to shine into his abyss: Crown Princess Shen Lingyi. But as an emperor, he is destined to expand his borders, reform the bureaucracy, and make enemies of the entire scholar-official class. He gives her all his tenderness, while unleashing all his brutality, obsession, and loss of control upon her. She becomes the vessel for his emotions, taking the full force of his collapse into her own flesh and blood, bit by bit, until this overwhelming love drains the life from her and she dies in a hemorrhage during childbirth. Only after her death does he understand that an emperor’s love is the deadliest curse of all. From then on, he seals off his heart and becomes a cold political machine. He ushers in an age of prosperity, with nations paying tribute, yet dies alone at thirty-four, clutching one of her keepsakes. The height of political scheming is calculation; the height of an emperor’s love is loss. He gains an entire empire, but can never again find the one who once brought warmth and comfort into his life.