Debt of Beauty

From the start, his son's wife. In the end, his son's mother.

Emperor Yuanzhao ascended the throne in his youth and ruled for twenty-two years. Proud all his life, he nevertheless fell gravely ill before reaching forty, and his final years were bleak.

He had loved and raised Shu Ningyun for half his life, but on his deathbed she said to him, "You old bastard. Seeing you like this is so satisfying. I'll send your son down to join you soon."

Reborn in the year he had bestowed Shu Ningyun in marriage to his eldest son, Emperor Yuanzhao looked at the person kneeling before him in tears. There was no tenderness left in his heart, only a cold smile.

He lifted her chin and wiped away her tears, soothing her as he had when she was a child. "I was wrong. You are scheming, rebellious, and unfilial. It was my failure to raise you properly."

He hated her, questioned her, and berated her. Just as he decided never to see her again, he unexpectedly saw that the male courtesan she cherished so dearly had a face strikingly like his own.

From then on, the tearful cries he had once found so irritating changed in his mind. Her tear-filled eyes, her lips: she became his desire.

-

Shu Ningyun was raised by Emperor Yuanzhao from childhood and had always admired his stern, imposing nature.

But he was not her biological father. Three years ago, he made her a princess and sent her to her fiefdom, and from that moment he was no longer her adoptive father either.

Now he had graciously arranged for her to marry his eldest son. Ningyun had tried to resist, but when he fainted in a fit of rage, she knew she had no choice but to obey.

He scolded her for being rebellious and unfilial, showing no regard for their past affection. Ningyun's heart had already gone cold. Still, whenever she thought of him afterward, she couldn't help cursing him: You old bastard!

That day, she returned to the place where she had lived as a child, overwhelmed by sorrow. Emperor Yuanzhao suddenly appeared before her, his eyes dark and feverish, nothing like those of a man suffering from a chronic illness.

He raised her face with his folding fan and made her look up. "Little thing, why do you keep insulting me?"

Ningyun looked up at him and saw his jade belt cinched around his waist, his chest slowly rising and falling.

She lowered her gaze and pushed the fan down a little, her delicate cheek brushing against his burning palm. "It is all because Your Majesty failed to raise Yun'er properly back then."

She hated him, resented him, and defied him. All of it meant being disciplined by him, forcibly drawn into his arms, and possessed by him day and night. This was all part of raising her properly again.

-

After Xu Zhen schemed again and again, he finally secured the position of Crown Prince and won Shu Ningyun as his Crown Princess. But with the wedding approaching, his father summoned Shu Ningyun to the palace in the name of serving her elders.

He went to the palace to demand an explanation, only to stumble upon his usually dignified, cold father. The emperor's robe and jade belt lay on the ground, his muscular back bare, shoulder muscles bulging like mountains collapsing as he pinned his future Crown Princess beneath him.

His father's sinewy arm braced beside her ear, and his large hand grasped her pale, slender ankle, easily folding her down onto the bed.

"You little vixen! My Yun'er, my darling..."

---- Please Read Before Starting ----

1. The heroine lived in the palace as a child, the same age as the princes and princesses. She and the male lead once shared a relationship as elder and younger, but they were never truly father and daughter.

2. Some terms referring to relationships appear in the story. They are used as affectionate terms in the context of the novel.

3. The emotional entanglements begin only after the heroine returns to the capital as an adult, and after their original relationship has ended.

Coming soon: From Father to Husband. Please add it to your reading list!

In her previous life, Yu Ni believed without question that Zhao Shilan was the man destined to be her husband.

When their secret affair was discovered, she stepped in front of her adoptive father's blade.

"Am I supposed to stay by your side for the rest of my life?"

On the day she married, her adoptive father told him:

"At home, obey your father; once married, obey your husband. Now that you are his wife, you and I have nothing more to do with each other."

Yu Ni was heartbroken. After the wedding, she found a little comfort in her husband's tenderness.

But in the second year of their marriage, her adoptive father lost his political power, and everything changed.

Her husband showed his true colors, bringing two pregnant concubines into the household and coldly watching as his mother tormented and mistreated her.

In the fourth year of their marriage, her adoptive father died. Her husband made the acquaintance of a rising noble and wanted to marry his benefactor's daughter.

"Either ask to become a concubine yourself, or I'll divorce you and make you a state courtesan, bringing shame on that bandit Lin."

Only then did Yu Ni learn the truth about what had happened back then. Zhao Shilan had deliberately deceived her, then stabbed her adoptive father in the back once he had gained power.

He seized the inheritance her adoptive father had left her, claiming that her adoptive father had severed all ties with her, and refused to let them see each other one last time.

Yu Ni bitterly regretted everything. On Zhao Shilan's wedding night, she set the Zhao residence ablaze.

When she opened her eyes again, she was back on the day after her wedding.

Her adoptive father was still at the height of his power, while Zhao Shilan was merely his student, entirely dependent on his support.

Yu Ni immediately asked to return home to visit her adoptive father, but her maid looked puzzled and told her she was already at home.

"Look, this is the Lin residence. The master sent someone to bring you home early this morning."

The maid said that her adoptive father had sent Zhao Shilan away to serve as an official in the provinces, and he would not return to the capital for six months. In the meantime, she could stay safely by her adoptive father's side.

Yu Ni looked at the gold lock fastened to the door of her bedroom and remembered those words:

"At home, obey your father; once married, obey your husband."

When she obeyed her father, he had doted on and raised her for twelve years. Now she wanted to obey her husband again, to be his wife and let him raise her all over again.

*

Lin Yingqin made his mark while still young, rising to the highest offices and devoting himself to holding up a collapsing court and saving the country from peril.

But as the tide of power turned against him and he coughed blood on his deathbed, there was one thing he regretted above all else.

Zhao Shilan was a treacherous wolf. He had married Yu Ni off into a den of wolves and ruined the rest of her life.

The girl he had cherished since childhood should have remained under his protection.

Now he had been reborn. Once married, a woman obeyed her husband. He decided it was time to take Yu Ni back and make her his wife.

Theme: To hold your hand and grow old together