The Villainess Empress's Misery

[A cunning, black-hearted couch potato "pretty fool" dog of a male lead x an ambitious, treacherous, dog-loving "unlucky sap" female lead]

Lou Wuyi, Prince of Hengan in the northern desert, had the ambition of a wolf and all the makings of a scheming-novel villain.

After pushing herself too hard one day, she suddenly died in her study. Then Lou Wuyi transmigrated into this world. Having experienced the dirty tricks of the wealthy and modern corporate warfare, she quietly took over the original owner's plans and resolved to become emperor.

The old emperor was frail and near death. Lou Wuyi's goal was simply to eliminate a few princes. But after investigating the situation, she found one more: the ninth prince, who wasn't quite right in the head.

The other princes were all striving and competing. He was foolish and useless, lying flat like a lazy dog. A prince who could do nothing but eat, drink, and have fun, yet had an absurd number of demands for his principal wife: she had to be beautiful, skilled in martial arts, from a respectable family, and devoted to him alone...

Lou Wuyi scoffed. He wasn't looking for a wife. He was looking for a poor sap to torment.

Who could have guessed that later, at the New Year's banquet, the ninth prince Yan Chenshi would sit across from her, arriving late and bleary-eyed from sleep? His face was impossibly bewitching, and his expression was innocent and guileless. He was just like the Samoyed she had raised in her previous life. "Which family are you from, elder sister? Why has this prince never met you?"

Lou Wuyi: "..."

Oh no.

I'm the poor sap now.

#Being a sap is fine, as long as I get to raise him!#

Later, Hengan's hundred-thousand-strong army marched south, bearing a banner with the words: "Request an imperial decree granting marriage." The four words were written with murderous intent.

On their wedding night, the usually obedient ninth prince pinned her down. Seeing the darkness in his eyes and his wicked smile, Lou Wuyi realized she had brought a wolf back to her den.

Yan Chenshi still wasn't satisfied. With a wicked smile and an intimate, suggestive tone, he said, "My wife, when will you give me the imperial seal of the empress?"

#Written as an unlucky sap, read as a treat#

#I wanted to raise a puppy, but he can be both a milk dog and a wolf#

Reader's guide:

1. The female lead transmigrates. Both leads are powerful, and both are devoted to each other. One-on-one romance. The male lead is absurdly funny; without him, it's a normal political-strategy story (though maybe not that normal).

2. The female lead is an ambitious schemer by nature, cold-blooded and ruthless. Becoming emperor is inevitable, and along the way she does things that are villainous in the traditional sense.

3. The male lead looks like a pretty fool on the surface, but is actually a black-hearted schemer. He pretends to be obedient when he's not. He really is lazy. A Samoyed among dogs, Yan Chenshi among men. The male lead raises a dog, a border collie.

4. Thanks to Bi Shui Mei Gu for the cover.

Please add my upcoming story to your collection: After Hearing the Villainous Empress's Inner Thoughts

[A deadpan female lead with a forced-love script, a touch of yandere, and a habit of complaining x a sunny, timid male lead who thinks he's in a classic underdog story]

The last emperor of the previous dynasty was incompetent and foolish, and the people were left homeless and displaced.

Rebellions sprang up across the land to overthrow the tyrant. Among them, Prince Yinghuai Luo Chaoyan was the most formidable, her army advancing in a mighty host. The old dynasty couldn't withstand the assault, and the country fell when the last emperor hanged himself.

Though the last emperor was dead, the remnants of the old dynasty remained.

Luo Chaoyan led her army into the palace to clear it out, and ran into the seventh prince of the old dynasty, Su Kedian, who hadn't managed to escape in time.

The youth wore white, with black hair and red lips. He was so beautiful he seemed otherworldly. When he saw her, he stared blankly for a moment, then smiled at Luo Chaoyan, the tip of a little canine tooth showing at his cheek.

Luo Chaoyan's expression was cold as she calmly thought,

His expressions are lively, and his smile is sweet. If he's just as pretty when he cries, I might as well take him back to the palace and keep him as a pleasing ornament.

Her thought had barely crossed her mind when, a moment later, tears gathered in the youth's eyes and rolled down like pearls from a broken string. He looked so pitiful and lovely, it was impossible not to feel sorry for him.

Luo Chaoyan: "..."

The new emperor turned and ordered, "Take him back to the palace."

(See my profile for the full blurb.)

Theme: Hard work is what makes a life.