Drunk on Clear Waves (Reborn Twice)

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Princess Jiang Shulan is breathtakingly beautiful, kindhearted, and soft-hearted, but a cup of poisoned tea ruins her health. Even after she falls in love with the gentle Lin Qingyun, she can only die with regrets.

After her death, Jiang Shulan watches as Lin Qingyun returns to the capital to avenge her. He grows increasingly ruthless and obsessive amid the bloodshed, spending the rest of his life alone in her memory.

Reborn, Jiang Shulan wants Lin Qingyun to fall for her sooner and make up for the regrets of their previous life.

So she can't help drawing close to him, teasing him, and tempting this usually restrained man into losing control and falling for her.

But later, Jiang Shulan discovers that Lin Qingyun's chaste self-restraint is only an act.

*

He always remembered Jiang Shulan saying she wanted to marry a gentleman as flawless as jade, so for years Lin Qingyun tried to become the kind of man she liked.

But he knew that an imitation could never be the real thing, and she would never love him.

Yet on the day Lin Qingyun returned victorious, Jiang Shulan came to welcome him with a bouquet of lovely, vibrant flowers.

Her beautiful eyes brimmed with laughter as she said softly, "Someone once told me that when you welcome the person you love home, you should bring flowers."

His shameful imitation, hidden from the light, had worked.

*

Remembering how Jiang Shulan had stopped breathing in his arms in their previous life, Lin Qingyun could no longer pretend to be a gentleman.

Jiang Shulan had only caught a mild cold, but the sickness and gloom hidden deep within Lin Qingyun broke loose completely.

His gaze dark, he buried his face beside her neck and pleaded hoarsely, "Don't leave me again."

"Not even for a moment."

*

[Bonus Scene]

After the palace banquet, Jiang Shulan, her skirt stained with blood, stopped Lin Qingyun beside the artificial hill.

Tipsy, she was languid and alluring.

"I heard that although the general always appears in public wearing half a black mask, he's actually strikingly handsome. Might I be fortunate enough to see your true face?"

Her pale fingertips slowly traced Lin Qingyun's jaw, lingering at the Adam's apple she had kissed so many times.

Jiang Shulan knew that a proper gentleman like him would refuse gently, at most.

But Lin Qingyun suddenly put an arm around her slender waist and led her into the artificial hill.

In the dark, he murmured tenderly in her ear, "Your humble servant is only of average looks. But if I take off my mask, Your Highness, what do you intend to offer in exchange?"

"For instance, when the princess kills, would you be willing to use me as your blade?"

[A cool and aloof princess in public, a flirtatious temptress in private, and a gentleman on the surface who is secretly an obsessive, unhinged general]

Reader's guide: Weibo @Xi Jie Jiu

1. Both are inexperienced. Happy ending, alternate setting. Lin Qingyun's yun is pronounced yun.

2. They'll do everything before marriage, so run if that bothers you.

3. Cover art by @Shi Yi.

Author's other works: Ancient-style romance, marriage before love; completed story about a man with a secret crush, Spring Mountain Night (Both Reborn).

Completed historical transmigration story: After Opening a Supermarket, I Found My Happy Ending with the Doomed Male Lead.

My ongoing story about a husband chasing his wife after the divorce, The Aloof Crown Prince Panicked After Our Divorce. Please add it to your collection!

1.

Shen Hanshuang is stunningly beautiful, poised, and considerate. All she wants is to find a good husband and live a quiet, ordinary life.

But after marrying Zhu Yinzhou, heir to the Prince of Pingnan, she learns that he already has someone he loves. That person is now the Crown Princess, and will one day be empress.

Shen Hanshuang is merely his second choice.

Many married couples have no love between them. Compatibility and habit can be enough to live peacefully together for the rest of their lives.

Shen Hanshuang doesn't want to waste her energy asking for more, and she'll no longer mistake Zhu Yinzhou's occasional lack of restraint as proof that he loves her.

So when she realizes she has fallen deeply in love with him, Shen Hanshuang keeps her feelings well hidden. She continues to be Zhu Yinzhou's gentle, understanding wife, asking nothing of him emotionally.

Then chaos breaks out in the capital. When rebels surround the Prince of Pingnan's residence, Zhu Yinzhou risks his life to rush to the palace and protect the woman he loves, leaving Shen Hanshuang behind to worry in the manor.

The ache in Shen Hanshuang's heart suddenly makes her realize she's been deceiving herself. Every day, she's hoped that Zhu Yinzhou would show her a little favoritism.

But he can't give her that.

After the chaos subsides, Zhu Yinzhou becomes crown prince, having killed the former crown prince with his own sword.

Seeing that he has finally gotten the chance to reunite with the woman he loves, Shen Hanshuang calmly decides to divorce him.

2.

Everyone knows that Zhu Yinzhou, heir to the Prince of Pingnan, is as cool and distant as snow on a mountain. Even after getting married, he remains cold and taciturn with his wife.

After their divorce, people call Shen Hanshuang foolish. She gave up her chance to become crown princess and chose to live a quiet life at a mountain temple, becoming a topic of gossip over tea.

But no one could have imagined that when the new crown prince learns Shen Hanshuang is sick, he would stand outside the temple for days, aloof and self-possessed, his tall figure among the red leaves like a bank of fresh snow, just waiting for Shen Hanshuang to let him see her once.

And when he hears that Shen Hanshuang has accepted a marriage proposal from the grand secretary, Zhu Yinzhou, always calm and restrained, darkens his gaze and abandons his principles for the first time, doing everything he shouldn't.

Reader's guide:

1. The male lead has no unrequited love for anyone else. He only loves the heroine.

2. He has to win his wife back after the divorce. They divorce before falling in love.

3. Our goal is to get the aloof male lead to finally speak his mind.

Theme: If the circumstances around you hold you back, break them and reshape them