What Have I Done Wrong?

[The scheduled-post settings were wrong, so the story has not started yet. For personal reasons, I'm not opening it for now. I'm truly sorry.]

Emperor Changwang unified the Southern Continent, achieving great things and securing a prominent place in the history books.

But she was also a tyrant.

Headstrong and arbitrary, she preyed on men and women alike. Her many misdeeds were too numerous to recount.

The wicked meet their end, and so she died.

When news of her death spread, her ministers wept with relief.

The beauties she had abducted into her harem cried tears of joy.

The beautiful Empress Consort, famed for being devoted, virtuous, and gentle, immediately declared a general amnesty. Gongs rang out and firecrackers crackled, and the whole Southern Continent was immersed in a sea of celebration.

Even the coldest, most heartless white-haired Imperial Astrologer quietly set off a string of firecrackers at the Observatory.

In the first year after the Emperor's death, the Southern Continent continued to thrive.

In the third year after the Emperor's death, the Empress Consort had the court firmly under her control. The ministers remained loyal, the harem remained intact, and everything carried on as usual.

In the tenth year after the Emperor's death, a wandering Daoist said that if they could gather the tears of the person the Emperor had loved most in life, they could summon her soul back.

And so the entire Southern Continent went to war, all fighting over who had been the Emperor's one true love.

-

Emperor Changwang faked her death and went into seclusion, sleeping in comfort for ten years.

When she woke and came out for a stroll, she had no hurry to take up the reins of power. First, she planned to pretend to be a ghost and scare those people.

In the Golden Hall, the sickly, stern Regent bends over his desk, reviewing memorials.

The ministers submit a memorial, declaring that His Highness is endowed with Heaven's virtue, beloved far and wide, and destined by Heaven to ascend the throne.

The Regent lowers his eyes to the memorial, his expression unreadable, his gaze heavy.

Changwang smiles.

She floats behind him, affectionately wraps her arms around his neck, and whispers by his ear, her breath sweet and her ghostly aura chilling:

"My darling, are you enjoying my imperial throne?"

The young man's body goes rigid. A storm of emotions surges through his heart:

Shock, fear, resentment, hatred...

And an irrepressible, overwhelming longing and love.

Reader's Guide:

1. The heroine is genuinely unhinged. When she goes around pretending to be a ghost, she'll have a bit of a vengeful-female-ghost vibe.

2. This is an all-romance story. The Empress Consort and the Regent in the blurb are not the only male love interests. Most of them have one-sided feelings, and the heroine occasionally responds, depending on her mood.

3. Not a villainess, not a villainess, not a villainess. Her overall moral standards are decent; she's just not in a normal state of mind (cheerfully).

4. The Emperor period, the fake-death period, and the heroine's past as a common girl will be interwoven. Most of the story takes place after she returns to scare people as a ghost.

5. Not a matriarchal world. The setting is my own blend of fantasy elements.

Theme: I am the Son of Heaven