Beautiful as Jade

Historical romance coming soon: Reborn, I Won't Pick Up a Mad Dog. Please add it to your reading list!

Content warnings:

1. This is a fictional setting. Please don't scrutinize the historical details.

2. The ending is a bad ending.

3. This is not a wish-fulfillment story. The plot moves slowly and can be rather dull. It's also not a typical story about taking revenge and punishing villains after being reborn. If that's not your thing, don't read it.

4. A little BL is introduced later for plot reasons. If that bothers you, skip it or move on. See Chapter 44.

Chu Qianling's birth finally gave the state of Chu a female heir. For this reason, the current Emperor of Chu made an exception and elevated her to princess, though she would normally only have been named a commandery princess. She became the only princess in the state of Chu.

With countless members of the imperial clan doting on her and four older brothers protecting her, she once thought she was the happiest person in the world. So she was arrogant and domineering, and treated other people's lives as worthless, simply because she was a princess, the only princess in all of Chu.

Everyone kept their distance from her, staying as far away as they could. The few people who truly cared about her either died or were injured. In the end, she was left all alone.

There was one person who had never feared her. He dared to defy every order she gave.

Just as they were about to marry, he and his father brought down the state of Chu, leaving her without a home. She watched helplessly as the people she cherished disappeared one by one before her eyes.

He became the heir to the new dynasty, and she became his wife.

He said, "Chu Qianling, you're someone who caught my eye, but you're also someone I hate to the bone. You destroyed the person I loved and trampled my dignity. Now I'll make you watch, sitting in the position of Crown Princess, as the people you cherish die by my hand."

Later, he ascended the throne and took his place on the Dragon Throne. But she was neither empress nor his principal wife. Only then did she understand that his heart belonged to someone else. For that person, he defied all convention and elevated the woman who should have been a concubine to the position of empress. She went from wife to concubine, becoming a laughingstock in everyone else's eyes.

Reborn in this life, she still had to go through everything all over again.

But this time, Chu Qianling finally found the courage to stay away from Wei Yao.

Synopsis of Reborn, I Won't Pick Up a Mad Dog:

Yuan Mingshu's greatest regret in life was bringing Jiang Cizui, who was barely clinging to life beneath the snow on a freezing day, back to the princess's residence from the chaotic streets.

She had been the beloved daughter and sister of her parents and older brother, the Princess Duanhe of Xuan, with a dazzling future ahead of her. Because of this one person, her country was destroyed and her family was gone.

Jiang Cizui imprisoned her and kept her confined, making his childhood sweetheart and beloved humiliate her every day. In the end, she watched her last remaining relative die with a blade through the heart, just one step away from her, while trying to save her.

The last traces of affection she felt for Jiang Cizui were ground away. With nothing left to hold her back, Yuan Mingshu chose to die alongside everyone who had shamed, humiliated, and harmed her.

No one was going to get through this life unscathed.

But at the very moment the blade pierced his heart, she thought back over her life. Her hand trembled, and Jiang Cizui survived.

So be it. He had lost the one he loved. His life would be miserable enough.

Yuan Mingshu closed her eyes with a trace of regret.

*

When she opened her eyes again, she was back on the day she saved Jiang Cizui.

The first thing she did after waking was order someone to throw Jiang Cizui, who had only just regained a little consciousness, out of the residence.

Someone asked her, "Didn't you go to all that trouble to save him? Why leave him to fend for himself now?"

Looking down at the hand clutching her skirt, she sneered. "The snow was so dazzling that day, I was blinded and mistook a devil for an immortal. That was my mistake."

As the guards came to drag him away, she heard Jiang Cizui, who was barely breathing, call out, "Ashu."

Yuan Mingshu said plainly, "Throw him out!"

She was not a kind person. She didn't know what had clouded her judgment before, but she had been kind once, and that was more than enough. This time, she would unleash her cruelty, keep her family safe, and kill anyone who dared to provoke her.

Reader's guide:

* A heroine who recovers her hidden mad streak after being reborn, paired with a hero who is still mad after being reborn but regrets his actions and humbly begs for forgiveness.

* A story about seeing who is more unhinged.

* Both are reborn, and neither is a good person.

* The hero must win back his wife, and there is no change of male lead.

* The setting is fictional, and the logic follows the plot. Please don't scrutinize it.

Theme: The world is dark, but that's all right. We can be each other's light.