Blurb:
An Huai is a strategist living in seclusion on Fengwu Mountain. One day, he awakens the System and learns that he is a founding hero to Lin Yuzhuo, the future ruler of all under heaven. But their story ends with suspicion between ruler and subject, and a white silk cord as his reward.
An Huai: ...Forget being a strategist. I'm done.
So in the future, when he and Lin Yuzhuo are supposed to meet over snow-covered plum blossoms in Yingzhou, beginning their relationship as ruler and subject and setting their sights on unifying the realm, An Huai sends an impostor in his place and listens from a private room next door.
At the Battle of Daishan, he is supposed to offer a strategy that helps Lin Yuzhuo crush the enemy and establish his reputation as a young emperor. Instead, he slips the strategy into a fish's belly, then lets someone else discover it, giving up the credit.
Even when Lin Yuzhuo is wounded while surrounded, and An Huai is supposed to rescue him from a rain of arrows, An Huai disappears when Lin Yuzhuo is ready to hand out rewards. No one comes forward to claim the credit.
An Huai wants neither fame nor an emperor's golden promises. He just wants to live out his days in peace.
*
Lin Yuzhuo is calculating and iron-fisted, a ruler of a troubled age with both great talent and political cunning. He is one of the most vividly recorded figures in history.
He is also the only young emperor ever to conquer the realm and then die a violent death.
Reborn, Lin Yuzhuo is even more cold-blooded than in his previous life, because he has discovered that the cherished strategist who helped him unify the realm in his last life has vanished.
He was supposed to meet An Huai in a snowy pavilion in Yingzhou. But when he impatiently pushed open the screen painted with red plum blossoms, Lin Yuzhuo saw only an unfamiliar face. The impostor was there, so where was An Huai?
An Huai was nowhere to be found at the Battle of Daishan, where he should have offered his strategy. Instead, an unknown soldier found a plan in a fish's belly. An Huai's strategy had appeared, but An Huai was avoiding him.
Worse still, Lin Yuzhuo was rescued by An Huai in a rain of arrows. He clearly saw the face beneath the helmet... but when it came time to award the rescuer, An Huai had vanished without a trace.
After unifying the realm, Lin Yuzhuo coldly told his officials: "Turn Fengwu Mountain upside down and bring me the man named An Huai."
*
Lin Yuzhuo knows An Huai too well. In their previous life, they were close enough as ruler and subject to share a bed and sleep under the same covers. Even after their relationship soured, Lin Yuzhuo knew that all An Huai wanted was to spend a quiet life on Fengwu Mountain.
Sure enough, An Huai was brought before him.
An Huai never would have imagined that an emperor who had never met him and didn't even know he existed would find out where he lived on Fengwu Mountain.
And on the steps, the emperor, handsome as jade, looked at him with an expression full of far too many emotions.
Before he could think it through, An Huai knelt and begged Lin Yuzhuo to spare him.
Lin Yuzhuo sneered: "Spare you? Give me a reason."
After much thought, An Huai remembered the rumor that Lin Yuzhuo loathed men who loved men.
So he blurted out: "Because I like men. I feared I might offend Your Majesty's eyes."
Lin Yuzhuo's expression shifted. He hauled An Huai into his arms, held down the struggling man, and sneered: "Aren't you the one who likes men? Why are you running?"
He leaned close to An Huai's ear and said, "If that's the case, from this day on, my dear subject shall eat and sleep with me, rise and live with me..."
"Your name and mine will be written side by side in the history books."
An Huai: ...?
[Cool on the outside, warm on the inside, brilliant, beautiful and formidable minister bottom x sharp-tongued, soft-hearted, thoroughly ruthless emperor top]
Tips:
1. If this happens to overlap with some ancient sage, it's purely coincidence. The author is illiterate and may not even know about it.
2. Reborn, two powerful leads as ruler and subject, contending heroes pluck the fruits of victory. Their red thread is strong enough to split the earth in two.
3. This is An Huai: /ᐠ - ˕ -ᐟ Ⳋ; this is Lin Yuzhuo: =⩌⩊⩌=
4. Written on September 20, 2026, at 22:38.
Theme: A name in history, with you
