The Tyrant's White Moonlight

Reborn, just after nearly drowning, suddenly finding out you have the script of an angst-novel heroine: what does that feel like?

Su Yao: Thanks for asking. I was just fished out of the water. I'm shaking, and a mouthful of blood is stuck in my throat, nearly choking me to death.

Su Yao was born into an eminent family and doted on by everyone. Her aunt was the empress, and her cousin was the crown prince. She was a bona fide winner in life.

But in the book, after she turns fifteen, every powerful relative and loved one she has will die.

The tyrant ascends the throne, and his very first imperial decree orders the extermination of the entire Su family, sparing only her.

"At the execution platform, Su Yao stood in prisoner's clothes as a man brushed aside her disheveled hair, revealing a breathtaking face. His inscrutable gaze paused for the briefest moment. He lifted Su Yao's pale chin and said in a cold, emotionless voice, 'A beauty capable of bringing a kingdom to its knees. Indeed, the number-one beauty of Luojing. It would be a shame to let you die just like this. My palace is still missing a pretty little bird.'"

Reading the plot, Su Yao's eyes widened in disbelief. What kind of bizarre story was this?

After much thought, Su Yao decided to defy fate.

Since the tyrant was still young, she might as well strike first!

*However...

The first time:

Su Yao saw the tiny, filthy male lead fighting a vicious dog over food.

Her hand holding a brick wavered, and she hit the dog instead...

Afterward, Su Yao told herself: It was just an accident. Don't panic. You can do this.

The second time:

The teenage male lead was still pitifully thin. Beaten black and blue by the scions of the noble clans at the Imperial Academy, all he could do was silently blink back tears, looking weak, pitiful, and innocent.

Furious, Su Yao pulled him behind her and went up to beat those people herself.

Afterward, she was furious with herself for being such a failure and swore that next time, she would absolutely mind her own business.

The third time:

She knew the male lead would be assassinated. All she had to do was stop him from escaping, and she could change his fate.

That night, she saw the peerlessly handsome man holding his cold mother, his face filled with despair and loneliness. Su Yao spotted the arrow flying toward him, and her body moved on its own to shield him.

Before Su Yao lost consciousness...

Damn it! Why do I always say I'll do it next time?

In her hazy consciousness, she seemed to feel a warm touch by her ear. A hoarse, restrained voice reached her: "Yaoyao, don't leave me..."

The voice was both humble and pitiful, and Su Yao was moved. But before she could open her eyes, she heard him say viciously, "If you still don't wake up, I'll imprison you in Zhaoyang Hall forever."

Su Yao: ...What?! Just you wait!

[Reading Guide]

1. Set in a fictional world. Historical details will be noted in the author's comments, but some elements have been adapted and combined for convenience.

2. Both are virgins, one-on-one romance, happy ending.

Research for Pearls in the Palm is still underway. I'm planning to start with a short, melodramatic story and let loose. Please add my upcoming novel, The Crown Prince's Sister-in-Law, to your favorites. Here's the blurb:

Upcoming: The Crown Prince's Sister-in-Law

Shen Lingshuang married Zhao Yuanjing when he was at his lowest.

She cooked for him with her own hands and cared for him tenderly. After three years, she had helped him struggle his way to the position of crown prince, and finally earned his affectionate calls of "Shuang'er."

For a time, she was so captivated that she thought she had finally warmed his heart.

That was, until his childhood sweetheart, Chu Rushuang, returned to the capital.

Their features were three parts alike, and they shared the character "Shuang" in their names. Only then did Lingshuang realize she was nothing but a substitute.

She had tried to fight for him, but became a laughingstock in everyone's eyes.

On her birthday, Zhao Yuanjing made a grand show of taking Chu Rushuang out on the lake.

When Lingshuang learned she was pregnant, Zhao Yuanjing demoted her from wife to concubine and welcomed Chu Rushuang as his principal consort with a lavish bridal procession.

He said, "Rushuang is kindhearted. As long as you obediently kneel and serve her tea, there will always be a place for you and the child by my side."

Lingshuang gave up completely, ended her pregnancy, and perished in a sea of flames.

*

Zhao Yuanjing thought Lingshuang would always love him.

After all, the Shen family was long gone. In this vast world, where could she go besides staying by his side?

He locked Lingshuang, now his concubine, away in the desolate, lonely Jingxin Pavilion, thinking he could keep her. Who could have known that one fire would reduce the entire pavilion to ashes?

Zhao Yuanjing went completely mad.

He dug with his bare hands for three days and nights, his fingers slick with blood. At last, a collapsing corridor beam struck his head, and he returned to the night of their wedding.

His hands trembling, he tried to hold his wife, whom he had lost and regained, close.

But the eyes that had once been so tender and shy no longer shone with love for him.

Zhao Yuanjing refused to lose hope.

Lingshuang loved him so much. Surely they would make up and be as they once were.

Until one day, he watched his younger brother, Zhao Yuanzhao, effortlessly seize his throne and place the empress's phoenix crown on his wife's head.

Lingshuang's cheeks were red as flowers as she lightly kissed the handsome young man's lips.

Her slender, willow-like waist was faintly rounded. The child she carried was Zhao Yuanzhao's.

*

The first time Zhao Yuanzhao saw his gentle and beautiful sister-in-law, his heart skipped a beat.

So what if she was his sister-in-law?

With a charming smile, he drained his cup of wine and, for the first time, set his sights on competing for the throne.

Only a phoenix crown and embroidered robes, with all under heaven as her bride-price, could be worthy of the wife he wanted.

Theme: Never look down on a young man in hard times.