Qionghua, Just Like Before (Rekindled Love)

[Exclusively published on Jinjiang Literature City]

[Updates may follow the rankings before joining the paid chapters]

[Bright, confident eldest princess X aloof, cold Imperial Preceptor with a crushing inferiority complex] + [older man] + [childhood sweethearts] + [second chance at love]

Word around Chang'an had it that the princess who had gone to the Turkic lands to marry for peace was returning to the capital.

As the most honored princess of Great Zhou, Shen Qionghua had volunteered ten years ago to marry into the Turkic lands for the sake of the realm. She had suffered hardship and humiliation in a foreign country, and now she was finally coming home. Everyone in Chang'an was overjoyed, and the people spoke of her selfless act of marrying for peace.

On the day the princess returned to the palace, the emperor and empress dowager personally went outside the city to welcome her. The young general of the Zhenguo Duke's residence and most of the court officials lined the streets along the route of her sedan chair.

Behind the phoenix-patterned golden silk curtains, Shen Qionghua's face was barely visible. Looking out at the crowds in the street, she held her daughter in her arms and spotted many familiar faces. She remembered how, in her reckless youth, she had declared before the assembled ministers in the Hall of Nurturing the Heart:

"I am a princess of Great Zhou. If it will keep the people safe and the borders peaceful, I am willing to go to the Turkic lands and forge a century of friendship between our two nations."

She had not known that on the journey to the Turkic lands she would face attacks from every direction and cold indifference. She had arrived there barely clinging to life, only to be met by a weak and useless husband, a despicable and shameless khagan, and a host of Turkic ministers who watched her with predatory eyes. At last, after ten years of walking on thin ice, it was all over.

At the same time, a cold figure from the past came flooding into her heart along with her memories of youth. They had not seen each other in years. The little Daoist priest she had once ordered to stay by her side had become the Imperial Preceptor, a man to be admired from afar and never touched.

Chang Jue was the youngest disciple of the former Imperial Preceptor. He was poor with words and ignorant of social niceties. Apart from his handsome face, there was little about him to make anyone stop and take notice.

Several years earlier, five-year-old Princess Chenghui had slipped away from a prayer ceremony at Taixu Temple. Somehow, she had made her way to the temple's back courtyard, where she happened to meet Chang Jue tending medicinal herbs.

The child, as delicate as a carving in pink jade, stood there and stared at him with round, bright eyes.

She pointed at him and said to the nursemaid who had rushed over to find her, in a childish voice:

"I want him."

From that day on, the sole purpose of Chang Jue's existence became making Shen Qionghua happy.

To make her happy, he treated every word Shen Qionghua said as an imperial decree. He never refused anything he could do for her, and his boundaries kept retreating in her presence. Still, he knew in his heart that the princess merely treated him like a pet to amuse herself.

Chang Jue understood everything. He knew the princess was highborn, that men and women should keep their distance, and that he should never, and could never, harbor such thoughts. Yet when Shen Qionghua, burning with fever, knocked on his door in the middle of the night, he still opened it despite himself.

Nothing happened that night, but Chang Jue could no longer deceive himself and insist that everything he did was simply because the princess had ordered it.

He chose to disappear completely from Shen Qionghua's dazzling life, then paid a terrible price for that decision. News that the princess was to marry into the Turkic lands reached him, and what cut him to the bone was that he himself had to divine an auspicious date for her wedding.

On the day of the wedding, he hid in the crowd and watched the princess's bridal carriage gradually disappear beyond the city gate. Chang Jue stood alone on a street corner. Even after everyone else had left, he remained standing in the heavy snow, letting the frost consume his body and soul.

Half a year had passed since Shen Qionghua returned to the capital. The empress dowager thought she was in the prime of her life and should not waste it away, so she went to the princess's palace and sat on her embroidered bed to discuss the matter.

"A prince consort?" Shen Qionghua leaned lazily against the bed and said with a casual laugh, "There's no need. But if we're talking about male companions, I suppose I could take a few."

The palace attendants spread her words beyond the palace. At once, many young and handsome men grew restless. Becoming one of the princess's male companions was surely a way to get a foot in the door for the prince consort selection. The princess was already a peerless beauty, and the wealth of her residence was beyond what ordinary people could attain in five lifetimes.

But no matter how tempting the offer, many prominent men couldn't bring themselves to become nameless, unofficial companions to a princess. Only the sort of man who wanted something for nothing would choose that path.

Yet nobody in their wildest dreams could have imagined that the Imperial Preceptor, who never indulged in sensual pleasures and was as pure as snow on a high mountain, would one night kneel before the scarlet phoenix bed with his clothes in disarray.

Chang Jue's hair was loose, his face flushed. He stared at the woman on the bed, entranced.

Shen Qionghua leaned lazily against the bed and glanced down at him, asking coldly:

"Imperial Preceptor, why are you in such a state?"

His lips, usually devoted to reciting the Purity Mantra, trembled slightly. His eyes shimmered with tightly restrained desire. "I... can't I?"

[A brief content warning]:

1. The female lead is not a virgin, while the male lead is.

2. The female lead has a child of her own, not the male lead's, and she will have no more children later.

3. Because the female lead's life in the Turkic lands was very difficult, she behaves somewhat differently at first from how she used to. She will gradually rediscover herself later.

4. The female lead has some feelings for her former husband. Although their marriage was an alliance, her former husband is not a bad person. If this doesn't work for you, please click the back button.

5. Neither the female lead nor the male lead is a moral paragon. They have human desires and the limitations of their respective social classes. Please read certain plot points with an open mind, and avoid this story if they are a trigger for you.

[Here's the blurb for an upcoming book]

[Fragile, sickly, aloof Chang'e impersonator X tough man with a tender heart, fake King of Hell]

The Lu family had a daughter named Heng.

She was cherished from the moment she was born. Though she suffered from a serious illness, her family snatched her back from the King of Hell and lovingly raised her with a longevity lock and white jade bangles. When she grew up, she became a "true Chang'e."

But her parents died young, and Lu Heng was taken into the imperial palace as a child, where the empress and empress dowager raised her themselves. Anyone with eyes could see that Lu Heng was destined to become the crown prince's consort.

Years passed. The "true Chang'e" became stiff and dull, frail as a sickly flower. Aside from her pretty face, she had nothing to set her apart.

Everyone in Bianjing said:

For a woman like her to marry the golden branch and jade leaf that was the imposing Crown Prince, her parents must have begged all their ancestors in the afterlife. Otherwise, how could she be so lucky?

But they waited and waited, yet no news came of the Crown Prince taking a wife. Instead, they heard that Miss Lu was marrying down to the eldest son of the Qin family, who had only just arrived in Bianjing.

Unlike the scholarly Lu family, the Qin family had begun as bandits. Qin had only made his way into the impossibly expensive city of Bianjing after surrendering to the Crown Prince and earning military merit.

Some people were glad Lu Heng had lost her place as the crown princess. Others cursed her as faithless, saying she had betrayed a Crown Prince who loved her with all his heart.

Most of all, people sneered that the "fake Chang'e" and the "real bandit" were made for each other. After all, birds of a feather flock together.

One day, someone said this to Qin Li, the eldest son of the Qin family, at a banquet.

No one expected Qin Li to fly into a rage on the spot. He grabbed a knife, shoved his way to the wine table, and caused a scene. In an instant, the guests scattered and wine vessels shattered. The man was pinned against a wall, with the knife's edge only an inch from his neck.

Qin Li, notorious for his viciousness and violent temper, returned home and curled up at his wife's knees like an abandoned dog. He buried his head in the skirt that smelled faintly of bitter medicine, closed his eyes, and murmured:

"A Heng."

She was his true Chang'e, the frost on the moon, the one for whom he would point his blade.

Reader's guide:

[Pure romance / both are each other's first and only / one-on-one / marriage first, love later]

1. The female lead is reborn. She marries in both of her lives, but in those circumstances, marriage is simply an obligation to her. She and the male lead are each other's first love.

2. Includes a little bit of everyone-loves-her, no forced romance, and an inexperienced author practicing her writing.

3. This story is set in an alternate Song Dynasty. The author is not from the Song Dynasty, so please forgive any historical inaccuracies.

Theme: Peace is built upon blood and tears