After Being Reborn, My Consort No Longer Loves Me

#Full text undergoing edits

[Mostly sweet and fluffy | A little groveling arc, brother stealing his brother's wife, and other melodramatic tropes

Clever, theatrical true heiress X reborn, gloomy, obsessive mad emperor]

When Li Yang was ten, she was brought back to the Li family estate in the capital.

She thought at last she would find the love of her family, not knowing that the fake heiress who had taken her place had already stolen everything from her.

She gave up her clothes, her jewelry, and her parents' affection, but she never imagined they would try to give away her marriage too.

Her parents wanted to marry her off to an elderly widower, all to pave the way for her younger sister to enter the palace and rise to power.

The night her family rejected her once again, Li Yang chose a desperate path for herself.

She would enter the palace in her sister's place.

*

Before entering the palace, Li Yang had heard all about the emperor, Xie Chengyuan: violent, cold-blooded, and uninterested in women.

But on the day of the selection, he looked past all the jewels and finery filling the hall and pointed straight at her in the corner.

"Look up."

Palace rules strictly forbade consorts from entering the Imperial Study without good reason. It was a restricted area.

Yet he kept her by his side, letting her browse his memorials and touch his calligraphy.

The emperor, who had always been cold and distant, gave her all his affection and made exceptions for her. He even rebuked his ministers in open court.

"This is the treasure I lost and found again. Who are you to criticize her?"

No one knew Xie Chengyuan had been reborn.

In this life, he plotted carefully at every turn, keeping her safe in the palm of his hand.

She retreated step by step from his tenderness, carefully concealing her shameful origins and secrets.

He kept closing in until she had nowhere left to go and was held tight in his arms.

"Yangyang, my beloved wife, the moment you entered the palace, you were destined to be bound to me for this whole life."

*

Until that night...

Her hidden identity was finally exposed, and everyone condemned her.

Her childhood sweetheart risked sneaking into the palace and grasped her hand tightly. "Come with me!"

At that very moment, the palace doors burst open.

Xie Chengyuan stood outside, drenched from head to toe. His gaze fell on their joined hands and gradually darkened.

He asked softly, but his voice was as icy as a blade.

"Yangyang, where are you going?"

[Bonus scene]

The next day, he overruled all objections and used an iron fist to make her empress.

Then he gently placed the secret report detailing her escape plan back in her hands.

"I chose the route for you myself, and I ordered the guards to stand down."

He leaned down to straighten the hairpin at her temple, his gaze as deep as the sea.

"I even allowed your childhood sweetheart to sneak into the palace."

"Now that you've had your fun, shouldn't you come back to my side, my beloved wife?"

[Important]

No angst, no angst, no angst!

Both are pure and devoted, both are pure and devoted, both are pure and devoted! The male lead has never touched anyone else! (The child is a spoiler. Anyway, it's not the male lead's!)

Coming Soon: Pretending to Be Deaf and Mute

[Depraved man pretending to be deaf and mute X sunny, passionate fool]

Xi Miaochan transmigrated into a harem power fantasy novel, becoming a disposable female character who would betray her childhood-sweetheart husband after being seduced by the protagonist.

In the original story, she would abandon her husband and become a brief affair on the protagonist's path to resurrecting his beloved. She would even "have the honor" of bearing his only child.

Xi Miaochan: What the hell? I spit on that!

Her husband was deaf and mute, and didn't even dare look her in the eye. He was like a little dog caught in the rain.

Her heart melted, and she swore she would treat him well.

But sometimes her husband made her heart tighten.

When she turned away, he would stare at her back with eyes that should have been vacant, his gaze clinging to her like a snake watching its prey.

But the moment she turned around, he would hurriedly lower his eyes, the tips of his ears red, his fingers twisting his clothes in helpless anxiety.

Xi Miaochan felt so sorry for him that she cupped his face and said, word by word, "Husband, stop being so insecure. I married you, so I'll treat you well for the rest of my life."

He obediently nodded, his lashes trembling as though he believed her.

But at night, he insisted she hold him before he would sleep. He said he was afraid of the dark, afraid of the cold, and afraid she would disappear the moment he opened his eyes.

If she moved away even briefly, he would silently shed tears, the corners of his eyes red. He looked so pitiful it broke her heart.

With flushed cheeks, she could only let him get more and more "affectionate" with her. She assumed he was just insecure, unaware that, where she couldn't see him, his eyes were dark with malice and his possessiveness nearly overflowing.

When she became pregnant with his child, she thought she had changed her fate.

But one day, she accidentally entered the dark room in the back courtyard where he never let her go.

In the dim cell, someone called to her in a trembling voice. "Miaomiao... It's me, Da Niu. We grew up together. We were promised to each other as children."

Xi Miaochan went cold all over. The man before her was her childhood sweetheart and husband. So who was the man sleeping beside her now, the one who had gotten her pregnant?

Behind her, a kiss branded itself on the back of her neck. The man gave a low laugh.

"Miaomiao, you're so naughty."

[Bonus scene]

Red candles burned bright beneath the low-hanging embroidered curtains.

Xi Miaochan's wrists were bound to the bedpost with soft silk. The man pressed up behind her and covered her slightly rounded belly with his palm, his touch firm but gentle.

"You're carrying my child, Miaomiao. Where do you think you're running?"

Her breath trembled. "Y-you, let go... You're not my husband..."

He gripped her chin and forced her head back. His warm lips kissed from the nape of her neck down to her collarbone, while his other hand slipped into her loose clothes.

"Y-you're crazy..."

"Yes, I'm crazy." He laughed softly, kissing away her tears, his voice filled with sick satisfaction. "Miaomiao, you were the one who drew me in. You can't leave me now."

"Miaomiao, you can't escape."

Theme: Love is both a weakness and a suit of armor.