Mad Emperor A Guai

[A fictional chaotic era, inspired by the north-south rivalry of the Song, Liao, and Jin dynasties]

In her previous life, the Diliu Kingdom fell, and Princess Yelü Mingyue became a caged bird kept by the new emperor of Zhousong.

Zhao Xuandu was a complete madman.

He crushed the bones of the old ministers of the Di Kingdom beneath his feet, then laid his bloodstained hand on her trembling lips.

“If you dare try to kill yourself, I will chop up the remaining hundred thousand people of your Great Di, along with your mother, and bury them in the Chonghua Terrace as fertilizer for Your Highness's flowers.”

Mingyue refused to bow to him until the day she died.

At last, she ended it all with her own hands on the Chonghua Terrace, finally escaping his cage.

She did not know that after her death, Zhao Xuandu personally escorted her coffin a thousand li back to Di.

Snow and wind followed them the whole way. The young emperor's jet-black hair turned white strand by strand.

The night she was laid to rest, he made a cut in the same place on his own body as on hers, then lay down to sleep beside her in the same coffin.

*

When Mingyue opened her eyes again, she had returned to the age of sixteen.

In this life, Great Di still stood, and her mother was alive.

She swore she would never see Zhao Xuandu again, even if it meant dying.

But a few days later, she rescued a boy who was nearly frozen to death in an abandoned falconry.

He was covered in blood, vicious and savage, and kept to the shadows, refusing to let her see his face.

He said he wanted to kill her, yet would stand up for her.

He would rather go hungry than eat anything but the food she brought him.

Even when he was gravely wounded and near death, he refused the medicine that could save him, yet secretly fed it to her when she was burning with a fever.

Mingyue gradually softened toward him.

Until the day she finally saw the boy's face.

It was Zhao Xuandu!

*

She prepared poison overnight, intending to kill the future mad emperor before he could grow into one.

But when she carried the poisoned meal to his door, she heard people from the Shuo Kingdom laughing about how they had crippled his right hand, how they had ruined his voice.

They planned to wait until they caught him, then torture him until he was no longer human.

Only then did Mingyue realize that the cruel, insane emperor from her previous life had once been a boy whom anyone could trample, and whom no one was willing to save.

*

In the end, she destroyed the poisoned meal herself.

From then on, she gave him medicine and food.

She protected him, and again and again taught him:

“Be gentle and refined. You can't just kill people whenever you like.”

“When you truly like someone, you can't take them by force.”

“You can't force them.”

“You must understand propriety and show restraint. Do you understand?”

Zhao Xuandu lowered his head and answered obediently.

He learned to put away his knife, to bow, to smile. He worked hard to become the gentleman she liked.

-

Later, war broke out in Di, and Yelü Mingyue bundled him up and sent him back to the Zhou Kingdom.

Before he left, the boy clutched her clothes tightly, his eyes red as he promised:

“Your Highness taught me to be a gentleman. I'll listen.”

“I won't take you by force or pressure you.”

“I'll return to Great Zhou.”

“I'll wait for you to come find me.”

Yelü Mingyue agreed readily, then promptly forgot all about it.

*

Three years later, Di fell.

Yelü Mingyue was bound hand and foot and brought before the golden hall of the new dynasty.

She knelt on the ground and saw a pair of black boots embroidered with golden dragons stop before her.

The young emperor bent down and lifted her chin.

“Your Highness taught me that when you like something, you mustn't take it by force, lock it up, or destroy it.”

“I followed your teachings once.”

“But I lost you.”

“So this time, I won't follow them.”

Yelü Mingyue discovered that the mad emperor from her previous life had been driven to madness, piece by piece, by the people who destroyed him.

She could not forgive the man he had been in his previous life.

But she also could not hand the boy before her back to those executioners.

So she kept him by her side, as a weapon to protect the Di Kingdom.

Only in the end did she discover that this weapon would accept no master but her.

Theme: True love means having the power to take what you want by force, yet still being willing to give the one you love the right to choose.