The Substitute Empress Doesn't Want to Compete for Favor

[Complete. Please support the official release.] A new emperor ascends the throne. Former supporters of Prince Yi are all on edge, and the Duke of Xinguo's household, which once arranged for its youngest daughter to marry Prince Yi, is walking on eggshells. Lu Xingtan, the eldest daughter, raised by her grandmother in Jiangnan since childhood, is now sent into the imperial palace by her mother to secure the survival of the ducal household. Once inside the palace, Xingtan serves tea and grinds ink, becoming a dignified and virtuous empress, a comforting presence in the emperor's perfumed chambers. But before long, she learns from the palace servants that the emperor has a beloved white moonlight: her youngest sister, Lu Yueyou, who nearly married Prince Yi. The emperor's exclusive favor over the past six months was only because Xingtan's face bears a seven-tenths resemblance to her sister's. With the woman the emperor has been longing for about to enter the palace, the concubines watch with wide eyes, waiting for the thrilling spectacle of the Lu sisters fighting for favor in Chengqian Palace. But Xingtan throws in the towel. She raises fish and plants flowers in the rear courtyard, feasting and drinking every day, and soaking her feet while playing mahjong with the imperial consorts and noblewomen... At last, someone has come to take over. Her good days of retirement are finally here! To Ling Ye, the empress is nothing but a dignified pawn. At banquets, she helps him win people's favor. At rituals, she goes through the motions with the Ministry of Rites. And the face that resembles the one in his heart by seven-tenths is just the right pleasure for him to enjoy. But after Lu Yueyou enters the palace, this pawn suddenly stops being "dignified." The empress repeatedly misses appointments, avoids him at every turn, and even seems ready to step down in favor of another. Only then does he realize that he never truly possessed the carefree Jiangnan woman, once she had shed her gorgeous brocade robes and taken off her heavy, ornate crown... Until a great fire burns the temple where the empress is staying to the ground. An attendant finds a charred corpse and reports to him that the empress has passed away. He doesn't want to believe it, but then he sees the familiar silver anklet bells set with pearls on the body, their joyful chime seeming to ring in his ears once more. From then on, the lamps in the Hall of Mental Cultivation stay lit all night, and he cannot sleep. Every night, the emperor suffers heart spasms. No medicine can help, and the entire Imperial Medical Academy is powerless. Only then does Ling Ye realize that she became his very life long ago. [Merciless Emperor x Beautiful, Fun-Loving, Laid-Back Little Empress] My next novel: "The Eldest Princess After Her Divorce". You can add it to your collection from my author page. [Blurb:] Le Chen once loved Lu Beiqiao. She had loved him since childhood. When she turned sixteen and came of age, her father arranged her marriage, and Le Chen finally got her wish: she married into the Lu family, the household of the chief minister. But only on their wedding night did she learn that Lu Beiqiao had always loved his cousin, Song Xuan. From then on, in public, the princess and her consort behaved like a devoted couple; in private, they treated each other with polite distance. A palace coup strips the crown prince, her eldest brother, of his title and sends him to Huainan as a prince in exile. Her second brother is sickly and incompetent, while her third brother becomes a puppet of the powerful eunuchs, a mere figurehead on the throne. When the new emperor ascends and purges the crown prince's allies, everyone in the Lu household fears being implicated by the princess, the crown prince's full sister. When Le Chen faces contempt and has nowhere to go, she remembers the Northern Pacification General, who commands the army and is shunned by everyone for his bloodlust. Late at night, Le Chen enters the general's residence with a lamp to pay him a visit. Beneath the dim candlelight, the tall figure leans against a couch. "I hear the princess has come to make a deal with me?" Le Chen offers her pale wrists. "I am willing to nourish the general for the rest of your life with my blood, in exchange for sending those eunuch traitors to the Avici Hell, never to rise again." The man curls his pale lips, slowly reaching toward her with long fingers. "What if I want more than the princess's blood?" ** Huo Tingchuan went to war when he was young and was struck by a strange poison in battle. Whenever it flares up, his blood turns cold as ice, and the only cure is to drink human blood. After years of this, the poison has seeped into his bones. His emotions have frozen, and his heart is utterly cold. Bloodthirsty and merciless: every rumor about him is true. Only that woman warms his blood and his body. For her, he is willing to become a demon and pave her way with his own body. He will give her the supreme crown as a gift and protect her from anyone who would dare harm her for the rest of her life. As for him, he is already a rotten mass of black mud, and would gladly descend into Avici Hell. [Mad Beauty x Obsessive General] [One-on-one romance. The princess and her former husband never consummated their marriage.] Theme: Stay positive and face adversity