Jade (Women Rule)

Feng Zhijin transmigrated into the ruler of a country.

The empress's daily life as she imagined it: handsome men and fine wine, and everything goes her way.

The empress's actual daily life: scheming and intrigue, and nothing goes her way.

This is exhausting. How is being emperor even more like being a corporate drone than being a corporate drone?

She wants to lie flat and give up.

Until she meets Shen Qingci in the imperial garden: the imperial consort rumored to have spent three years in the palace and been neglected for all three, obedient, steady, and meticulous.

When she lets go and stops caring, he quietly picks up the pen she dropped. "Your Majesty, I prepared a bowl of hot soup for you. Take a rest first."

When the court officials corner her at every turn, he stands beside her. "Your Majesty, it's all right. I'll help you sort out your thoughts."

When the Shen family makes unreasonable demands, he hesitates for the first time, no longer able to keep everything in order.

So Feng Zhijin turns back to him again and again, picks up her pen again and again, returns to court again and again, and takes the hand he reaches out to her again and again.

With him by her side, the path of an emperor is not impossible to walk.

*

In the fourth year of Yongchang, Her Majesty is attacked and disappears. The imperial consort takes charge of the state.

The man who has always been gentle as jade, steady, and meticulous uses ruthless measures, dismissing and exiling every last one of the culprits.

Day after day, night after night, he agonizes while calmly analyzing where she might have gone, wearing himself down to the bone, weeping and coughing up blood.

When they meet again, Feng Zhijin looks at him and can no longer hold back her tears. They stream down her cheeks.

He is more than thin. He has literally worn himself away.

"Qingci... How could you... let yourself become like this..."

Pure romance, short and sweet, a beautiful husband, a beautiful love, bittersweet. If it's neither sweet nor bitter, that's on me.

Written on 2026.4.17, screenshot saved.

Theme: Learning how to love others