The Last Empress

Coercive Possession | A Love Born of Hatred

The state of Wu had fallen.

When the rewards were being handed out for meritorious service,

Xian Ji did not set his sights on the princess of the fallen kingdom. Instead, he looked at the beautiful woman standing beside her.

She was the fallen emperor's empress.

*

Deng Yang had been empress for three years.

Then her kingdom fell.

She and her husband were both taken to Luoyang as hostages, where they struggled to survive.

At a palace banquet, she caught the eye of a tyrant infamous for his many crimes. He harassed her again and again, even threatening the life of the fallen emperor. She had no choice but to submit to him.

Later, the fallen emperor died suddenly.

A token was found in her room, making her affair with another man and the charge that she had plotted to murder her husband seem undeniable. To give the surrendered officials an explanation, the court arrested and imprisoned her.

She closed her eyes, waiting to die.

Who could have imagined that he would step forward?

Xu Xianji. She silently turned the name over in her mind.

A kinsman of the current emperor, Marquis Wuxin, and a great general. He had always been arrogant and lawless, and even the emperor had to give him room to shine.

The wicked, overbearing lord smiled lazily and glanced at her. "Why don't you tell them the truth, Your Majesty? That I'm your lover, and that we were having an affair."

*

She became a canary he kept behind closed doors. Her beauty was now his alone to possess, train, toy with, and savor to the fullest.

Sometimes, in bed, Xian Ji would ask with a smile, "Compared to that spineless husband of yours, how do I measure up?"

She would only smile sadly, saying nothing.

A fallen empress of a conquered kingdom.

Fragile and frail, seemingly too delicate to break. Yet even Xian Ji, so sure of himself, never imagined that one day the little bird would peck out his eye, costing him the life of his closest kin and leaving him with nothing.

He confronted her, eyes bloodshot. Why?

Had he not treated her well? Pearls and jewels, fine silks, delicacies: hadn't he offered them all with heartfelt devotion, afraid she might not be pleased?

How could she be so cold-blooded?

"You went too far!" She seemed to have heard a joke. "Who would willingly become a pair of adulterers with you?"

*

But he had not died completely.

Three years later, he returned to power.

Deng Yang watched in confusion as he advanced toward her, step by step. "No love? That's fine. Hate will do just as well."

1. A ruthless warlord x the last empress of a fallen dynasty. A married couple who love and hate each other.

2. The female lead has had previous partners; the male lead has not.

3. A pileup of all kinds of melodramatic tropes. The male lead chases his wife after losing her, and they end up sharing a bed while remaining at odds, trapped in a sea of hatred and love.

4. This blurb was saved on October 5, 2023.

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