I Shouldn't Have Refused This Marriage

Coming next: The Tyrant's Caged Bird. A sweet, timid little beauty vs. a sickly obsessive tyrant. Please add it to your collection! The Fourth Miss of the Duke of Jing's household, Luo Youning, has been troubled lately. Every night, she has the same nightmare. She dreams that Wei Xiao, the illegitimate son of Prince Jin whose proposal she recently turned down, rebels and seizes the throne with an iron fist. In her dream, Wei Xiao, clad in iron armor, leads his troops in razing the Duke of Jing's residence. On the eve of her wedding, he storms into her chamber and sends her, dressed as a bride, straight to the King of Hell with a single stroke of his blade. As she lies dying, Wei Xiao gazes at her with an obsessed, unhinged look and twirls a strand of her hair around his fingertip. "Did you know? I've always loved you. But from the day you refused to marry me, I've hated you with all my heart." "If you won't marry me, you can forget about marrying anyone else." The man's eyes turn bloodshot. He raises his blade and slashes her throat. When Luo Youning wakes, she touches her icy-cold neck. After bitter reflection, she makes up her mind: she'll marry him! Forget that Wei Xiao is eight feet tall and the most handsome man in all of Great Liang, with a face like Pan An. Even if he were a pig, she'd have to marry him to save her own life. But now there's a problem. She's already refused his proposal, and Wei Xiao hates her... Coming next: The Tyrant's Caged Bird When Ye Zhenzhen was six, she accidentally fell into the water. After a serious illness, a new set of memories appeared in her mind. She knows that the gloomy boy adopted by her uncle, Ye Lingyuan, will be recognized as a prince by the emperor in three years. She also knows that after Ye Lingyuan ascends the throne, he will take revenge on the Ye family for the abuse he suffered at the hands of her uncle's family. She and her parents won't be spared, either. She also knows that he will become a tyrant, cruel and bloodthirsty. Scene One: On a path strewn with gravel, Zhenzhen cautiously approaches the boy who has been bullied by her cousin and fallen hard enough to hurt his leg. The boy looks up at her, his eyes full of wariness and ferocity. Frightened, Zhenzhen plops down on the ground and says in a trembling, wounded voice, "Brother, I'm hurt. Please don't scare me, okay?" Ye Lingyuan will never forget that sweet little "Brother." Years later, when he sleeps alone in his palace, he wakes from midnight dreams longing for her so much it feels like his bones are breaking. Scene Two: When Zhenzhen is nine, the emperor comes to take Ye Lingyuan back to the palace. She runs to see him off. At fifteen, he has a shadowy, inscrutable gaze. He pinches her cheek until she cries out in pain and tears fall. "Brother, that hurts," Zhenzhen says, pouting as she always does. Ye Lingyuan's voice is hoarse. "Zhenzhen, you are not allowed to forget me." Scene Three: When Zhenzhen is sixteen, the young emperor exiles and confiscates the property of the man who tried to marry her, then issues an imperial decree summoning her to the palace to serve him. People say that Ye Zhenzhen is renowned throughout the capital, with a beauty both graceful and utterly unique. Yet she has fallen into the hands of a tyrant, becoming a caged bird with no freedom. Ye Zhenzhen smiles seductively. "Brother, they say I'm a caged bird." The emperor draws her into his arms, holding her possessively, as though no one else could ever lay eyes on her. He coaxes her tenderly: "Zhenzhen is the blood of my heart." He will have her at any cost. To lose her is to die. Theme: