A seemingly honest, scheming woman vs. a mad, evil emperor [Possessive pursuit]
The emperor was on the brink of death, and the imperial clan fought over the heir. Prince Yan, Li Zhen, was ambushed and badly wounded, then ended up stranded in the countryside.
Fortunately, fate wasn’t done with him yet. A village girl saved him.
The country girl was reasonably pretty, but spent all day working the fields and tending livestock. She was illiterate and had small ambitions, and all she cared about was grinning as she counted her pitiful few copper coins.
On a snowy night, she limped over with a bowl of pheasant soup to help him recover. Like a dragon trapped in shallow water, Li Zhen reluctantly drank a few mouthfuls. The pheasant was tough, but it filled his stomach.
What was a mere bowl of chicken soup worth?
When he returned to the capital, he would have his pick of the countless noble ladies from prestigious families.
His wife could only be a woman from a great clan, someone who could help him seize the throne and become a worthy empress.
How could a village woman like her possibly be a match?
*
Back in the capital, the past was like a cloud of smoke. Li Zhen was still at the very top of the world.
On a carriage, he saw that familiar face again. The woman was dressed in splendid silks and golden hairpins, held in someone’s arms.
Just as irritation rose in him, a flattering eunuch’s voice sounded by his ear:
“That is the new bride the He family took last year. By rights, she should be Your Highness’s... nephew’s wife.”
When night came, Li Zhen went to bed but lay awake for a long time. The memory of her soft, fragrant body grew ever clearer, winding around his limbs and tormenting him...
The tough pheasant had been just what he needed on that snowy night when he had lived on frost and dew.
*
Deng Yuelan had been kidnapped as a child. The old hunter who adopted her died of illness early, and the man she had finally found agreeable had abandoned her too.
When her birth father found her, she was already remarried, and her stepmother married her off to the son of a princess.
Within a year, she gave her husband a boy and a girl.
They were a loving couple, with their children always at their side, until that familiar face appeared again.
By day, he smiled warmly and called her “niece-in-law.” At night, he ignored her resistance and forced her to stay by his side, devouring her like a serpent.
Her husband’s family was wiped out in a bloody purge. Blood flowed across the jade steps, and her husband’s body lay sprawled in the courtyard.
A broad, powerful hand clamped down on her tear-streaked face, forcing her to meet his cold gaze.
Li Zhen studied the fear on her face, seemingly quite pleased. With a hand stained with her husband’s blood, he calmly wiped away her tears.
“Yuelan, if you’d known this day would come, why did you act as you did?”
Warnings: The hero and the second male lead are both sexually inexperienced.
1. The hero really is evil. He wouldn’t have become emperor without being ruthless and cruel.
2. The heroine’s ex-husband is no saint, so you don’t need to feel guilty about him.
3. This is not an empowering wish-fulfillment story. The hero has no idealized first love, and neither lead is a good person.
2026.3.20 / author
Theme: A ruler’s heart cannot be turned, while a concubine’s heart longs on and on
