The Pampered Young Empress Dowager

In the nineteenth year of Daxing, Yun Wan was appointed empress just after coming of age.

The princes and princesses, nearly her own age, came to pay their respects and called her Mother Empress.

Yun Wan forced herself to stay calm. Amid the curious stares, her gaze met a pair of scorching black eyes filled with ambition.

Looking again, she saw the third prince, Sima Zhuo, standing there with a smile, gentle as jade. That glance must have been her imagination.

That night, Yun Wan dreamed of a wolf sinking its teeth into her neck, devouring her flesh and drinking her blood. She woke in terror.

The emperor held her and comforted her. "Don't be afraid, Empress."

Under the emperor's protection, Yun Wan spent three carefree years as empress.

Then, in the twenty-first year of Daxing, the emperor died. The third prince, Sima Zhuo, killed his brothers and emerged as the last man standing.

*

Sima Zhuo hated the Yun family and swore to wipe them all out.

But a eunuch brought Yun Wan, who had failed to hang herself, before him.

Looking at the young empress dowager, her hair disheveled and eyes glistening with tears, Sima Zhuo lifted her chin with the bloodied hand holding his blade. "Want to die? That depends on whether I allow it."

No one knew how many nights he had been tormented by those feverish dreams.

Now his father was dead, and those dreams could finally come true.

*

In the early years of Zhenyuan, the new emperor ascended the throne and held a selection for palace ladies.

The Yun family, which had already produced three empresses, sent a legitimate daughter who had been living away from home.

As soon as she entered the palace, she won the emperor's favor and was showered with his attention day and night.

Rumors spread throughout the court: Was the Yun family about to produce a fourth empress?

In the golden palace, the young woman wept. "You... you mustn't be so improper!"

As if watching prey beneath his hand, the man slowly wiped away her tears, his gaze growing darker. "You call this improper? You're crying a little too soon."

Reader's guide:

1. The female lead is not a virgin; the male lead is. He is three years older than her. Happy ending.

2. Coercive romance and melodramatic Mary Sue tropes. The leads are no longer related even in name when they get together.

3. People have different tastes. Let's part on good terms. No need to tell me if you drop the story.

[Cover artist: Tang Yuyu]

Theme: Holding on to hope in adversity