[Scheduled to start by the end of December at the latest] Female Alpha, male Omega | Childhood friends | A stern, powerful, ambitious princess and her gentle, devoted, motherly minister
Princess Shangyang, Zhao Xian, entered the Imperial Academy at twelve, becoming the first girl to study there. Even the great scholars of her time praised her writing without reservation.
At seventeen, she went to the northern desert and won repeated military honors. The emperor personally bestowed on her the title King Hengge.
At twenty-seven, she returned to the capital, quelled the crown prince's rebellion, and took command of the capital's Sixteen Guards.
At thirty, she fell in love at first sight with the third-ranked scholar at the Qionglin Banquet. She then laid down her armor and gave up her power, beginning a celebrated love story with him.
At thirty-six, her great talent proved her undoing. She died of illness, bringing her legendary life to an end.
That's what the history books say.
Zhao Xian herself puts it this way: Was I under a spell the year I turned thirty?
The history books had already put Princess Shangyang's death beyond question. No one had ever doubted it.
Now, the case is being retried in broad daylight, and the one presiding over it is none other than Zhao Xian herself, risen from the depths of hell.
-
Zhao Ke never imagined he would die so horribly.
A length of white silk tightened around his neck. He struggled and suffocated, and when he finally breathed his last, his eyes bulged, his tongue lolled out, and he died a gruesome death, unable to rest in peace.
Three days after Zhao Ke's death, he re-formed and rushed straight to the imperial mausoleum.
Beneath the mausoleum lay an abyss, and in its depths was enshrined the witch-god worshipped by the people of Dayu.
In life, Zhao Ke had meekly accepted his fate. In death, his grievances refused to fade. He was willing to sacrifice his soul just to summon the witch-god and avenge himself.
He did summon the witch-god, but to his shock, it was Princess Shangyang, who had died ten years earlier: his nominal... aunt?
Zhao Xian stood tall before the mausoleum of the founding emperor, broad-shouldered and upright, looking down at him coldly.
"Do you have a grudge to settle too?" Zhao Xian said with a smile. "Then let's do it together."
-
The secret of Xie Ze'an's life was that he wanted to stand behind Zhao Xian forever, and be her shadow for the rest of her life.
In the end, he did become Zhao Xian's shadow for the rest of her life, right up until he died.
Reader's guide:
1. One-on-one romance, not a love triangle, and it has a happy ending.
2. The heroine is very strong. No particular reason; she's strong in every way.
3. The hero is a camera.
4. There will be a stretch of plot that deliberately misleads the reader, but trust that the hero remains devoted to the heroine from beginning to end.
5. It may look like a story about court politics, but it includes plenty of original worldbuilding. The later plot goes wild, with court intrigue, supernatural mysteries, detective suspense, Cthulhu, zombies, immortal beings, and a host of other elements. If that bothers you, please stay away.
6. The entire story is complete and ready to post. I'm gathering advance readers.
Theme: Confucius did not speak of spirits and strange phenomena
