A Wedding to Bring Good Fortune

Updated every day at noon.

Ying Wujie was the youngest child of the Empress Mother, with four older sisters and two older brothers. By birth order, the throne would never be hers.

Until she was ordered to leave the palace and visit Situ Qing, who had returned from the dead.

The chill of early spring lingered in the air, and pear blossoms fell like snow.

Dressed in black, Situ Qing sat on a high branch. Her raven hair spilled down like satin as she turned to look over. Her face was gaunt and beautiful as a demon's, with long, narrow phoenix eyes and an eerie, otherworldly aura.

Ying Wujie's heart pounded. Astonished and delighted, she thought: She definitely isn't human.

Her chance had come.

From that day on, she was trapped in the same dream every night.

In the dream, a bronze sacred tree burned with dim blue flames. She lay on a cold stone altar while that woman gripped her wrist, and they clung to each other in a desperate embrace.

At the end of each dream, the other woman would rest her head against Ying Wujie's chest, her cold fingertips tracing slow circles as she murmured, “I know what you want, but I don't want to help you.”

Ying Wujie asked, “Then what would it take for you to grant my wish?”

My body? My soul?

I would trade anything but the people of this realm.

The woman in the dream said nothing. She only gave a soft laugh and vanished like smoke.

Then, during the autumn sacrifice, danger struck. Ying Wujie took an arrow while saving the Empress Mother, and no medicine could save her.

As she hovered on the brink of death, a shadow pierced the blue flames and curled around her, settling beside her ear like a lover. “I can save you, but I want your heart.”

Ying Wujie gritted her teeth and answered with just one word: “All right.”

The shadow poured into her body, and she fell unconscious.

When she opened her eyes again, the room was filled with cold light and pale flames. Situ Qing, dressed in black, sat beside her bed. Her face was pale, her gaze chilling. “Now that Your Highness is awake, don't forget our agreement.”

Ying Wujie knew Situ Qing wasn't human.

She was a bewitching ghost, an evil spirit.

But so what?

She wanted that throne. She wanted to unite the realm and win the hearts of its people.

If it could help her, she had no qualms about using a ghost.

She made herself the offering, using the Grand Oracle's “auspicious marriage” as an excuse to have the Empress Mother find her a consort.

On their wedding night, she cut her own wrist and offered her flesh and blood to the “goddess.”

But the other woman merely glanced at her, took her wrist, and smoothed away the wound. “You're too thin. You wouldn't taste good.”

Then she tugged Ying Wujie down onto the bed.

Cold skin pressed against hers, like a bone-deep flame burning through her. Ying Wujie trembled all over.

After that night, Ying Wujie had a princess consort who was astonishingly clingy.

She wanted to be held while sleeping and sit close at meals. Even when Ying Wujie was reviewing memorials, she would drape herself over her back and stare at the nape of her neck with those ghostly eyes.

Ying Wujie gradually understood what Situ Qing meant by “I want your heart.”

How ridiculous.

The so-called gods and ghosts wanted something so intangible. They really were far too easy to fool.

If that was all, then no matter how many millennia passed, this ghost would remain in the palm of her hand.

But she forgot that when a ghost wanted someone's heart, it never meant intangible affection. It meant... every last part of the offering.

The true emperor × the bewitching ghost empress

The female lead is an emperor in both her past and present lives, paired with a seductive monster (ಡωಡ)

The world is a low-magic fictional setting inspired by works such as the Songs of Chu and the Classic of Mountains and Seas.

A monster bride who has waited two thousand years for her beloved, and the first and last human emperor.

Theme: It's okay to be a monster.

For someone, you'll always find your way to the human world.