Spring Deep in the Forbidden Court

The greatest love in this world is not you shielding me from wind and rain, nor building me a golden house. It is you and me standing side by side, facing storms together and sharing life and death. A gentle, refined yet iron-blooded emperor vs. a devoted, seemingly heartless empress vs. a cold-blooded warlord who lives for love (I didn't make a typo. The characterizations just seem contradictory, though I don't think they necessarily are.) Synopsis: Gu Xuanjing, the powerful Prince of Zhennan, never took another wife or concubine in the ten years after his principal consort died. Everyone said he was a devoted husband. But after waking up in another body, Yu Guiyan never believed that. This man, who had known every kind of hardship since childhood, was utterly ruthless and heartless. The only person he had ever truly thought of was his long-lost first love. For his first love, this man would stop at nothing and give up everything. Ten years ago, Gu Xuanjing slaughtered Yu Guiyan's entire clan for his first love. Ten years later, at the spring hunt, his first love was at his side. Did his hand tremble even once as he drew his bow? He was intent on killing her. How could he possibly have loved her? If so, then it would take only a thought for her fully drawn arrow to point at him. She wasn't so lowly as to humble herself for a fickle man and fight his first love until they were both battered and bruised. But in the end, she still didn't release her fully drawn arrow. How could she let him die so easily? Of life's seven sufferings, she would make him endure every one. She would make him wish he were dead. Reading Guide: 1. For the male lead's character notes, please refer to Chapter 9 of "No Laughing." 2. There are two male leads, with equal focus on both. Male Lead 1 is Wen Qingxiao, once the heir of Prince Qi and later an iron-blooded emperor, a man of perfect grace and virtue. Male Lead 2 is Gu Xuanjing, Prince of Zhennan, who goes through a long road to win his wife back, changing from calm and self-controlled to utterly unhinged and dark. So this is probably a story of a fierce clash between a noble, radiant male lead and a deranged, corrupted male lead. In the end, it turns out that only the noble, radiant male lead gets a happy ending. The deranged, corrupted male lead is destined for a bad ending. 3. The author is a goofball. The story involves political intrigue, and the characters' intelligence depends on the author's, but this is also a wish-fulfillment story where everyone loves the heroine and there are plenty of romantic rivals. 5. This is not a sweet story. It's a tragic romance with a few sweet moments amid the heartbreak. The heroine suffers a little, while the male lead and other male characters suffer a lot. It has an old-fashioned feel, but the heroine will not miscarry. The male lead and other men are the ones who get tortured, whether by physical disability or having their hearts torn out. 6. The heroine is always clear about what she wants to do and what she wants to gain. Loving Gu Xuanjing doesn't mean she won't want to kill him. 7. The heroine, Yu Guiyan, and male lead Wen Qingxiao are the author's cherished characters. The author tried writing this story before, aiming for a grand-scale plot, but hadn't prepared enough and the story fell apart. So the author is rereading historical and political-intrigue texts to understand the real thing, then will rewrite and complete the entire manuscript before publishing. It will probably take quite a while. Apologies to everyone waiting for this story, and please keep this in mind. Theme: The best kind of love is standing side by side with you.