After Offending Every Prince

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Content warning: This story contains forced plot developments. Everyone makes the best choices available to them. This is not a story about pure romance, so please don't read it if that's a dealbreaker.

Shen Xuanhe transmigrates into the world of a novel called The Emperor's Reign.

Armed with knowledge of the plot and having successfully attached himself to the biggest power in the land, Shen Xuanhe lives a comfortable life as a baby.

He's sure he can change the fate written for him in the book: being handed over to the Fifth Prince by the disposable emperor, suffering unbearable humiliation, and then throwing himself against a wall to die!

But during a palace power struggle, he loses his memory.

He lost! His! Memory!

He only remembers everything when the emperor falls gravely ill. By then, he has spent eighteen years wreaking havoc and doing whatever he pleases, all under the emperor and Consort's doting affection.

He's also managed to become the Great Yong Dynasty's number one wastrel. They say even the princes have to steer clear of him.

Shen Xuanhe: ...

What do you do after offending every prince?

Dying is out of the question, and he doesn't want to stick his neck out to be executed. So he can only find a new patron and keep acting high and mighty.

New patron candidate Xie Chun: To wake with all power under heaven in your grasp and sleep drunk with beautiful women in your arms, that is how a ruler should live.

Shen Xuanhe, who is also the capital's number one beauty: Σ( ° △ °|||)︴

[You thought I was your buddy, but you want to do that to me]

[This isn't the kind of The Outcast I wanted]

A patient, scheming top x a dazzling beauty bottom

The palace layout is based on the Forbidden City, and the administration, divisions, and level of productivity are based on the Ming Dynasty. But this is essentially a fictional setting, so please don't nitpick the historical details.

Theme: The protagonist struggles to survive among competing factions and works hard to change his fate.