Please add my next novel to your reading list. The blurb is at the end!
[Willful, spoiled, sweet princess x cool-headed, meticulous, upright consort]
Princess Qionghua, Xiao Lan Yin, had no desire to marry. After the retired emperor abdicated, he took the empress dowager traveling through the mountains and rivers. Somewhere along the way, they ran into a fortune-teller who declared that the couple had a son and a daughter. The son was safe, but if their daughter did not marry this year, she would die young.
Then Xiao Lan Yin developed some sort of stagnant heat toxin. The only cure, she was told, was to consummate a marriage with a man. Otherwise, the heat would attack her heart and take her life...
Fine, then. It looked like she had no choice but to pick a consort!
The emperor waved his hand and appointed Pei Yan, Marquis of Jing'an, as her consort.
Xiao Lan Yin was extremely displeased. Not only was he suspected of being attracted to men, he was also fault-finding and penny-pinching. Worst of all was his obsession with rules. When he walked, he had to step right in the middle of the gaps between the bricks. If the servants moved a pen holder in his study just an inch out of place, he would wake up in the middle of the night and get out of bed to straighten it.
Married life was tolerable at night, but during the day it was impossible to describe.
Xiao Lan Yin considered simply finding a handsome young man to keep as her lover.
But after looking around the whole capital, why did her consort still seem like the most pleasing one?
Pei Yan, Marquis of Jing'an, had devoted all his ambitions to the court. Who could have expected the emperor to drop a delicate princess right into his lap with a single decree?
By day, the princess criticized him from head to toe, yet at night she was full of enthusiasm. Pei Yan could only sigh. As a subject, he took the emperor's salary and served at her bedside. It was only his duty.
But later, the princess actually started looking for lovers. What, had he not been attentive enough in bed?
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The Past Left Behind
Xie Tinglan was reborn. She held no resentment or hatred, and felt no unwillingness to accept her fate. She knew in her heart that she had deserved to die in her previous life.
Deep down, she had always hated fighting and scrambling for power. But Xiao Jingxing was different. His heart held the realm beneath heaven, and his eyes burned with a wildfire that could consume the plains.
Every son of the late emperor was a remarkable man. If Xiao Jingxing wanted to fight his way to the top, he could only pave his road by crushing the rules, affection, and conscience one by one.
His secondary wife, Shen Lingyi, was exactly the person who could help him crush everything.
She stopped at nothing, and he was merciless. Together, they truly were a match made in heaven.
For all those years, Xie Tinglan watched coldly from the sidelines. She had to admit that Shen Lingyi deserved half the credit for Xiao Jingxing's eventual rise to power.
So after Xiao Jingxing ascended the throne, he immediately gave Xie Tinglan a cup of poisoned wine, then made Shen Lingyi empress.
When Xie Tinglan picked up the wine, she even felt relieved. Xiao Jingxing's youthful affection for her had long since been ground away by his boundless ambition. After seeing his true nature, she had also severed her feelings for him.
Their affection was long gone, and they had grown sick of each other. Rather than stay alive as a sitting duck for anyone who wished to frame her, she would rather drink the poison and be done with it.
But she had never imagined that she would open her eyes again.
She wanted nothing to do with Xiao Jingxing in this life, so she chose Xiao Jingheng instead.
On their wedding night, red candles burned brightly. Xiao Jingheng lifted her veil and looked into her eyes. In a gentle voice, he said, "Tinglan, I know you had your reasons for marrying me. But thank you for being willing to choose me."
Xie Tinglan froze for a moment, and suddenly her eyes reddened.
Theme: A good marriage is a sincere meeting after letting go of expectations.
