[Villainess] [Political Intrigue] [Pseudo Reverse Harem] [Possessive Love] [Alternate Eastern Han Setting]
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Who is Yang Pu Zhen?
When she married Liu Cong, ruler of Han, she was a sacrificial offering sent from Jian'an to Shu Commandery to turn hostility into peace.
When Xie Qingzhang abducted her to Yuyang, she was one of the spoils of victory.
And when Xie Qingzhang presented her to Cao Xiu, Marquis of Wei, she became a sharp blade in the victor's hand, ready to pierce through the Luo River and strike straight at Jian'an.
To her, there was no real difference between Shu Commandery and Yuyang, or between Liu Cong, Xie Qingzhang, and Cao Xiu. She was merely leaving one cage for another.
Liu Cong once said, "When I receive Heaven's Mandate, I will bestow upon you a jade seal and appoint you empress."
But in the spring of the twenty-first year of Changping, the Han court fell. The battlefield was strewn with corpses, and the great fire in Shu Commandery burned for seven days without dying out. When Liu Cong was forced to lead his battered troops south in the middle of the night and retreat to Jiangyang, he was the only one who forgot to take her with him.
The peach blossoms were in full bloom that day. Petals filled the sky, falling upon her along with splashes of blood as she stood in wretched disarray before Xie Qingzhang's horse.
For a time, she thought being abducted by Xie Qingzhang might be a blessing. At least she would no longer have to navigate power struggles, a pawn to be summoned and discarded at will.
Xie Qingzhang, too, had once promised her: "May we see the light of day and never forget one another."
But in February of the following year, he presented her to Cao Xiu as a concubine. Only then did she realize that from the moment the peach blossoms fell upon the horse's head, she had been destined never to find happiness.
Later, across the towering palace steps and the long, narrow corridor, Yang Pu Zhen saw the face of Cao Xiu, Emperor of Wei. Behind his youthful features, she saw the same bewilderment she felt herself.
He held out a hand to her and sighed, "The fate of the realm rests on your shoulders alone. How cruel."
That day, seventeen-year-old Yang Pu Zhen understood for the first time what it meant to share another's misery. But she was so intent on taking his hand that she forgot he, too, bore the surname Cao.
Reader's guide:
1. Inspired by the late Eastern Han setting, but fictionalized and not historically rigorous.
2. Both leads are virgins, happy ending, with a little political intrigue, though it's very basic.
3. A new writer just starting out, so please go easy on the writing.
Theme: If people are not burdened by their bodies, the Pure Land is right before their eyes.
