Renouncing Your Grace

Ming Yi was a palace maid, and the only person who stayed by the disgraced Crown Prince Wei Zhi's side when he fell on hard times. She washed his clothes and brewed his medicine, took an arrow for him and was injured, endured humiliation on his behalf, and even miscarried his child, left with a body full of illness.

For seven years in the darkest days, Ming Yi gave him all her youth, finally helping Wei Zhi reach the throne.

Once he had risen to power, all Ming Yi received was the man's cold, unfamiliar voice: "In consideration of our past, I grant you the rank of Consort. You may spend the rest of your life in the harem."

For a palace maid to rise to become a consort was already an imperial favor. As for the position of empress he had once promised Ming Yi, that could never come to pass. The empress would only be the woman he had once loved but could not have.

His history with Ming Yi had been nothing more than a desperate compromise in troubled times: she bore an eight-tenths resemblance to the woman he loved.

But a substitute is only ever a substitute.

Ming Yi finally understood that she had been nothing but a diversion and a consolation for a man whose love was unrequited. They had shared hardship, but not prosperity. The throne was not hers, and the child she'd once carried had been killed in her womb by the man's own hand.

Ming Yi came to her senses. She disfigured herself to decline the emperor's favor, withdrew into her proper place with nothing but her ruined memories, and stopped yearning for even the smallest thing that did not belong to her. She only hoped to leave the palace at twenty-five and regain her freedom.

But Wei Zhi got drunk at a victory banquet and turned around to grant Ming Yi to the former dynasty's general, Wei Ling, as an insult.

Ming Yi felt as if she'd fallen into an icy abyss. She knelt in the imperial hall for a long time, then bowed and thanked the emperor for his grace.

**

Three years later, Ming Yi returned to the capital with her husband to receive his title, their child, just over a year old, in her arms. She came face to face with Wei Zhi's imperial carriage.

Ming Yi wore a married woman's hairstyle, having shed the innocence of her girlhood. When their eyes met, her heart no longer raced as it once had whenever she saw him. She greeted him calmly.

Wei Zhi's gaze fixed on the child, who looked almost exactly like Ming Yi. He clenched his fist beneath a faint smile, then used the empress as an excuse to hold a private banquet. While Ming Yi was drunk, the emperor drew her into his arms, his eyes red and his voice trembling. "Yi'er, I regret it."

During every day and night Ming Yi was away from him, longing for her had driven him mad.

Ming Yi's cheeks were flushed from wine, but she was perfectly clear-headed as she pushed him away. "Your Majesty, have you forgotten? You were the one who gave me to another man."

Wei Zhi couldn't give her a proper marriage. Wei Ling did.

Wei Zhi couldn't give her a loving marriage. Wei Ling did.

Wei Zhi refused to give her a child, but with Wei Ling, she had a happy family.

"Your Majesty, an emperor's word is law. You should not regret it."

Regret is useless. She doesn't love him anymore.

Note:

1. All the male characters are sexually inexperienced. The scumbag Wei really did give the heroine away, and she really did have a child with someone else.

2. Substitute romance + regretful pursuit, a melodramatic, bittersweet story.

3. In order of appearance, Wei Zhi is the male lead, while the second male lead, Wei Ling, takes his place.

Theme: Cherish the one you love