The Emperor Takes His Minister's Wife | Coercive Possession | The Powerful One Bows His Head
[An eagle-hearted, crane-faced emperor × the resilient daughter of a county magistrate]
Yu Qinghe first met Zhao Mingzheng in the bustling capital, where the wealthy dressed in silk and brocade.
Beneath the emperor's gaze, beneath the nine gates of heaven,
Yu Qinghe knelt in the palace hall for the selection, not daring to raise her head even slightly.
The man sat high above all others. With a casual point of his finger, he assigned her to Pei Shaoyuan, head of the Nine Ministers, a man no one at court thought much of.
Pei Shaoyuan was not favored by the emperor and could barely keep himself safe. Marrying him now was no different from jumping into a fire pit.
But Yu Qinghe had no room to refuse, so she could only marry him in haste.
After the wedding, the two treated each other with respect.
Pei Shaoyuan was very good to her, and Yu Qinghe gradually came to love their warm, peaceful little home.
Until the day the emperor reprimanded the Minister of Ceremonies in the great hall and ordered him demoted and stripped of his salary.
That night, after a drunken spell, Yu Qinghe learned from Pei Shaoyuan how the founding heroes of the past had been relentlessly cornered by the emperor of the day, until their names and reputations were utterly destroyed.
"When the birds are gone, the bow is put away. Emperors have always been like this. The fact that I still have a chance to live is already a stroke of luck..."
"But Pei Lang served his country and people with unwavering loyalty and not a trace of disloyalty. How could the emperor treat him so cruelly?"
She didn't understand that a ruler's favor and fury were both gifts of imperial grace. She only knew that her Pei Lang was the best man in the world.
Yu Qinghe had never realized how much she loathed and feared a man who held the power of life and death in his hands, yet treated human lives like weeds.
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A year later,
The emperor personally led his forces into battle, quelling rebellions and ending strife, then suppressing the entire court with an iron fist.
At a family banquet attended by the whole palace,
Yu Qinghe was summoned to attend.
Pei Shaoyuan repeatedly urged her to be careful.
Yu Qinghe took pains not to invite the slightest trouble, but while leaving midway through the banquet because the wine had gone to her head, she ran into a man.
He seemed born of royal blood and commanded respect without even needing to show anger. Even the way he looked at her seemed to treat her as an amusing curiosity. "Who are you?"
Yu Qinghe didn't recognize his face, but knew that anyone wearing such sumptuous clothes must hold an extraordinarily high rank.
She didn't dare overstep. "I am the wife of Pei Shaoyuan, Minister of Ceremonies."
As he watched the woman before him lower her eyes and bow,
Zhao Mingzheng narrowed his eyes slightly, then suddenly smiled.
If the Chief Eunuch had been there, he would have instantly guessed what the emperor was thinking.
But Yu Qinghe had no idea at the time.
That chance encounter, that brief meeting, would completely change her life from then on.
Zhao Mingzheng was the emperor.
If he wanted something, then anything in the world, any person at all, belonged to him.
No exceptions.
[Reading Guide]
1. (Important!) The female lead is not a virgin, while the male lead is. Lots of angst. The male lead is unbelievably awful, a pure tyrant who thinks the world belongs to him. He will inevitably face retribution later, then turn over a new leaf and learn to be a decent person.
2. The male lead has a harem, but it's in name only. He disbands it after falling in love with the female lead. His heart and body both belong to her.
3. The blurb is written from the female lead's perspective, which differs from the main text.
4. One-on-one, HE.
5. Fictional setting.
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Theme: Be self-reliant and keep loving life
