After Ji Mu died, Jiang Yun discovered in a secret box he had left behind a record of countless wrongful convictions overturned and lists of murdered orphans and widows.
She stood in the empty study, as if she had been transported to a lonely, frigid night in the snow. His old illness had flared up, and he had returned with the chill of blood clinging to him. He draped his cloak over her shoulders, then turned away, forcing down the pain of coughing up blood as he bent over the desk to examine case files, analyze documents, and work through the night.
She said softly, "I always knew you weren't the wicked official they claimed you were, slaughtering innocent people."
Ji Mu had a terrible reputation in the Ministry of Justice. His beautiful, cold features and ruthless methods, along with his lack of human feeling, had earned him the name Living King of Hell. At court, he was the isolated and impeached Minister of the Court of Judicial Review. Outside court, he was a cruel official who devised a hundred forms of torture.
The day she married him, the whole capital was in an uproar. Everyone said the celebrated physician had married down because Ji Mu, a depraved invalid, coveted her family's ancestral medicine recipes and had used his influence to take a noblewoman by force. Some mocked her for throwing away a pearl, while others pitied her for marrying the wrong man.
She cried for two days, but married him all the same.
Ji Mu wasn't as heartless as the rumors claimed. When he was ill and clutched the hem of her clothes in a moment of weakness, his eyes held deep loneliness and a plea for her to stay. He would gently press his face against her palm.
Out of a physician's compassion and a woman's respect for her husband, she entered his darkness again and again. At last, she touched the sincere heart beneath his hard exterior, a heart that labored to clear the names of the wrongfully accused.
But Ji Mu died. Everyone said he had worked himself to death. Only she knew his death was suspicious.
Standing beside his lonely grave, Jiang Yun refused to accept it and vowed to seek justice for her dead husband.
Since this world gave him nothing but storms, she would return it to him in flames.
"My husband, Ji Mu, spent his life not wielding power for its own sake, but giving the living a voice and speaking for the dead."
*
Three years later, Jiang Yun went to the imperial prison to provide medical care. When she passed a certain man, her heart began to pound.
The man on the bed leaned against the torture frame, his official robes hanging loose, a soft whip looped around his hand. He was the new emperor's most trusted advisor, known throughout the court as the Ghost Chancellor.
"Come here."
She stopped in her tracks. The words she had been about to say to excuse herself stuck in her throat.
Everyone knew this lord was fickle and unpredictable. Just the other day, he had scared the young son of a vice minister so badly that he wet himself. She gripped the strap of her medicine box, her throat tightening.
But the tip of the whip suddenly brushed her waist, tracing a light line over her spring robe. He stood up, his shadow falling over her. "Are you afraid of me?"
"Please show some respect, my lord." She stepped back half a pace. "I have a husband."
He replied, "He's dead. You've been widowed for three years. The capital's young gentlemen are lining up to marry you, and you've got plenty of good matches around you. Why are you still thinking about that dead man?"
She nodded again and again.
"Liar." Ji Mu pulled her into his arms in a fit of spite. He hadn't expected that after being reborn, he'd still end up jealous of himself.
*
Her supposedly dead husband is still alive. He's reborn and takes on a secret identity under the Crown Prince.
Strong-willed, compassionate noblewoman who won't put up with mistreatment x Cold, beautiful male lead slandered by the world. The male lead is sinister in temperament, yet can also be gentle and compliant. He's ruthless, keeps his home full of torture devices, and likes having A Yun use him for experiments.
Both leads are virgins. The female lead is an aloof beauty. The male lead uses some rather bloody methods at court. He's frail and has an obsessive streak.
Set in a fictional world with a blended dynasty. Happy ending. Further content advisories will be added here based on feedback.
Theme: Let fairness and justice shine across the world.
