After Marrying the Gloomy Emperor

Marriage before love, a frail emperor, feigned hatred and true love, happy ending

*

The first time Lu Lingyi met Xiao Yingci, it was snowing.

The young man had a gloomy look in his eyes. He handed her a dead branch and pulled Lu Lingyi out of a pit.

She thanked him all the way, but the young man remained silent, quickening his pace with every step.

Lu Lingyi followed, stumbling along. Thin snow settled on her lashes, cool to the touch, but her heart was warm.

Only later did Lu Lingyi learn that the young man was to be her future husband.

She married into the quiet, desolate Weiyang Palace and became the proper empress of the Great Zhao dynasty.

On their wedding night, Lu Lingyi remembered her father's words and tremblingly slipped medicine into the wine.

She watched Xiao Yingci pause after taking a sip, then drink it all without hesitation.

Lu Lingyi's palm was slick with sweat. Seizing the moment, she pinned him against the brocade quilt. "Do you want to live?"

Xiao Yingci froze. The girl's soft figure leaned against him, her ear turning faintly red. She reached for his belt, her voice so quiet it was almost inaudible. "Do as I say."

As she gently nipped at him, all Xiao Yingci could remember was the low whimper she stifled in her throat. His brows drew together slightly.

Had he... hurt her?

*

Xiao Yingci probably hated her.

He hated that she was the daughter of a treacherous minister, and hated the humiliation she had inflicted on him on their wedding night.

Lu Lingyi smiled, though there was little bitterness in it.

All living things suffered. No matter how noble she was, she remained imprisoned in this place.

Xiao Yingci had broken her heart, and she could barely remember the warmth of that snowy day.

But she held no resentment. Xiao Yingci was trapped here too, a puppet emperor who could never afford to lose his composure.

On the day the Qiang people entered the capital, flames soared over Taibai Hall, and Lu Lingyi received the edict deposing her as empress, just as she had wished.

Lu Lingyi had thought her heart had long since turned to ashes. But when she heard the young emperor had perished in the flames, grief tore through her.

Overcome with sorrow, she smashed the imperial jade seal, removed every jeweled ornament from her hair, and consigned her flowing robes to the flames.

The young emperor and the empress were no more.

*

Xiao Yingci had seen everything drenched in red. His parents, teachers, and friends had all perished, and their cries of grief had lasted three days without end.

From then on, he grew cold and indifferent toward everything, because he would never have anything of his own.

Even though he was the Son of Heaven.

He was despised, wrapped in a love laced with arsenic.

Then Xiao Yingci met Lu Lingyi. She was graceful and poised, with the warm, clear bearing of a noblewoman from a great family.

On their wedding night, Xiao Yingci remembered the dimples that appeared when Lu Lingyi smiled, and how they resembled the ones at her waist.

He kissed her, kneeling on the ground, his frail, broken body all the more apparent.

Xiao Yingci always felt he was unworthy of her. Still, the young emperor couldn't help hoping she might look upon him with kindness.

Even if only a little, because she was different with him.

tip: The hero is a little quiet by nature

Theme: Study hard and make progress every day