Bone-Scraping (Multiple Rebirths)

Shi Xinci, the most beautiful woman in the capital, was born with peerless beauty. When she turned fourteen, the Bureau of Astronomy and Divination predicted that she was destined to be the mother of the nation.

At first, like everyone else, Shi Xinci did not believe it. The man she admired was the military governor, renowned as a god of slaughter, not a member of the royal family.

Later, Shi Xinci began to believe it. Qi Yan held the military power, purged the emperor's inner circle, and deposed the tyrant. Everyone thought the imperial throne would soon belong to the Qi family.

Later still, Shi Xinci accepted her fate. The man she loved gave away the throne he had won, along with her. She truly became the mother of the nation.

But she was unhappy as empress, and her reign was brief. Within little more than a month, she passed away.

The military governor Qi Yan held all the power in the realm. After narrowly surviving the coup, he had fought his way to victory, yet he had no desire for power. He helped the fifth prince of the former dynasty ascend the throne, then withdrew behind the scenes.

Everyone said he had no interest in women, until, barely a month after the coronation, news came that the woman he had given away along with the throne had died. The military governor's hair turned white overnight.

He knelt before a Buddha statue and begged for fate to begin again, through countless days and nights...

Perhaps Heaven took pity on him. A voice came from the void: "Since you have already given up the imperial destiny Heaven ordained for you, you can never again have her, the woman destined to be the mother of the nation."

"Unless..."

Her destiny to be the mother of the nation was cut from her very bones.

Reborn, Qi Yan discovered that he was imprisoned, forced to watch helplessly as she was manipulated, used, and abandoned by others, and lived out her whole life.

He regretted everything and wanted to stop it, but once the wheels of fate began to turn, they could not be halted.

"The lash of fate, the punishment of having one's bones removed, naturally hurts," the voice said again. "When she has endured it, you may welcome the rebirth you begged for."

When he opened his eyes again, he was back before everything had begun.

He was no longer imprisoned, and she no longer had to suffer.

Yet Qi Yan had forgotten everything from his previous life. He only remembered that he had to find a young girl.

But no matter how hard he tried, he could not remember what she looked like, or even her name...

Theme: Frost-white bark, with rain running down its forty-foot girth; dark green, reaching two thousand feet toward the sky