Rebels Beneath Her Skirt

Yu Fushu was born into a prestigious family. She was breathtakingly beautiful, but fate was unkind to her.

Her father held power over the entire court, yet treated her as a bargaining chip for a political marriage. Her mother was noble and gentle, but showed favoritism only to her younger siblings.

At least her betrothed, promised to her before they were born, was handsome, charming, and refined. But before long, the scoundrel cheated on her and got involved with her delicate younger sister.

At last, fortune seemed to turn in her favor. An imperial decree named her empress, and she married into the imperial family in grand style. But the spineless emperor had only married her under duress, and after the wedding he constantly humiliated and abused her.

Covered in wounds, Yu Fushu sat alone on the phoenix throne atop the high dais, coolly watching the various people around her. At last, she understood that the family affection, friendship, honor, and status she had spent the first half of her life desperately chasing, only to be betrayed in the end, were all as fleeting as flowers reflected in a mirror or the moon in water.

Only real power would never betray her.

*

Yu Fushu sent the tyrannical emperor to his grave with a cup of poisoned wine. Holding the secret decree appointing her regent empress dowager, she was preparing to face off against her father, the powerful chancellor.

But on the very day the emperor died suddenly, her first love led troops into the capital and transformed himself into a regent prince.

In the first half of her life, Yu Fushu had suffered betrayal from far too many people. There was only one man who had never wronged her, and she had been the one to cruelly abandon him.

Yu Fushu remembered the harsh words she had thrown at him when her lover had pleaded with her to stay: