In the capital, where powerful nobles were everywhere, Liu Yuzhao's background was truly beneath notice.
Yet she lived in seclusion, until one day an imperial edict arrived from the Golden Hall, granting her in marriage to the heir of the Marquis of Anbei.
Forced to cut ties with her lover, Liu Yuzhao married into the marquis's household under the nobles' cold stares, and spent her life in misery.
If only, on her wedding day, she had never lifted the sedan curtain and met those deep, smiling eyes.
She should have died of illness before turning thirty, just as she had in her previous life.
Instead, she came and went from the palace with increasing frequency, watching the emperor worry over her and pity her, while she laughed coldly, on the verge of madness.
From then on, the unbreakable threads between them wound around them like flames.
They left her parched and restless, and she could only seek relief to quench her thirst.
Pei Qin was born with no regard for the law. Before his father had even breathed his last, he brazenly led troops to carve out a position for himself.
No court official dared speak up. Only that old fool, the Marquis of Anbei, relied on his seniority to dictate terms to him. What a tiresome old man.
With a little scheme, he arranged for the man's son to marry the daughter of a minor official.
Naturally, the matchmaker had to attend the wedding in person.
Pei Qin found it noisy, so he sat by a window in a distant inn.
He hadn't expected the bride to be exactly to his taste.
Pei Qin paused with his cup in hand, then suddenly clapped and laughed.
Why shouldn't a minister's wife become the emperor's woman?
The emperor's love was as elusive as a shadow. Even after he gave her bodyguards to protect her, Liu Yuzhao still didn't trust him, calculating every concession he made.
On the day the marquis's household was about to fall, the truth could no longer be kept under wraps. Her mother-in-law discovered her affair and shouted that she would have her killed.
Liu Yuzhao stood behind His Majesty, watching them all with indifference.
Blazing flames were reflected in her eyes, reducing the tottering Marquis of Anbei's estate to ashes.
From then on, no one could ever imprison her again!
Liu Yuzhao harbored a secret hatred.
She hated the misfortunes of this life, the blood feud she had to swallow in silence, the unfairness of heaven and earth, and her lonely helplessness. Most of all, she hated that one casual point of the emperor's finger had trapped her in a secluded estate!
Reading Guide:
1. The male and female leads are both virgins in both their lives.
2. A possessive romance that turns from a sea of hatred and tragic love into a sweet romance.
3. The classical Chinese passages within the story are the author's invention.
Theme: Don't wait until the flowers have fallen to pluck a branch.
