Newly Widowed

Pampered Beauty vs. Resentful Tyrant Who Hates the Moon for Not Shining on Him

On the day the heir of the Duke of State's residence was laid to rest, the young emperor came to pay his respects at the mourning hall.

As he looked upon the duke's family kneeling in rows, he summoned only the heir's wife to the inner chamber.

No one knew that, hidden behind layer upon layer of white curtains and funeral banners,

Su Qingyan, the new widow they all found so unbearable, was being pinned atop the table of offerings by the emperor.

Dressed in mourning white, Su Qingyan angrily snapped, "My husband's body is not even cold, and his memorial tablet is right there!"

Gu Ningyuan looked at the name on the tablet, the one he had hated for four whole years, and said coldly, "Then let him watch."

Ten years ago, Su Qingyan, the youngest daughter of Imperial Physician Su, met the deposed crown prince, Gu Ningyuan, in the palace.

Undeterred by his brooding silence, she clung to him, making him talk and coaxing him to smile, keeping him company through the long days and nights of his confinement.

The day Gu Ningyuan reclaimed his position as crown prince, he painted a picture for Su Qingyan with his own hands. In it, a black swallow and a white swallow rested close together, their wings overlapping.

He swore beside her ear, "May these swallows never part, and nest together year after year."

But a year later, Gu Ningyuan ascended the throne, and with his own lips declared, "The Su clan is unfit to be empress."

Su Qingyan tore the picture of the two swallows in half and vowed that she and the emperor would be strangers for the rest of their lives, with neither marriage nor any other ties between them.

He stayed where he was, waiting for her to regret it, but she turned around and married someone else.

Everyone knows that Emperor Guangyu is violent and ruthless, that he murdered his brother and usurped the throne, and that he purged the court with an iron fist.

But no one knows that there is someone he loves but cannot have, someone whose absence eats away at him, though all he can do is desperately hold himself back.

He waited four years, finally until her sickly husband passed away.

This time, he will never let his Yan'er fly from his grasp again.

Bonus Scene:

Rumor has it that Su Qingyan is haughty and disliked by the great clans, and that the only reason she lived well in the Duke of State's residence was her husband's excessive devotion to her.

Now that her husband is dead, she would have been thrown out of the residence long ago if she did not have a daughter to rely on.

Everyone assumes she'll have to keep her head down from now on and work hard to curry favor with her late husband's family.

But to their surprise, she still does whatever she pleases, and is even brazen enough to meet her lover right there in the duke's residence.

One day, her mother-in-law brings a group of women to catch her in the act. They insist that she leave her daughter behind and get out of the residence.

But before they can even enter, they glimpse through the hanging curtains: Su Qingyan, disheveled and flushed, is held in someone's arms, a hand gripping her slender waist.

And the mighty, ruthless Emperor of Great Yue, whom everyone fears, has buried his face in the hollow of her neck, pleading sorrowfully, "What on earth must I do for you to turn back to me?"

Reader Advisory:

1. An ancient-era second-chance romance, a tangled love story where both resent the other for not loving them enough.

2. The heroine has a three-year-old daughter at the start. The daughter is the hero's.

3. The heroine is adored by everyone, and some male supporting characters will have unrequited feelings for her. Her husband will not come back to life, and he will not be vilified. He was a good man, but he died too young.

4. The heroine and hero met when she was fourteen. They reunite at the start when she is twenty-four.

Blurb written on April 15, 2026

Theme: Reuniting is a chance to become better people