A Classic Angsty Wife-Chasing Novel

[Possessive emperor who takes what he wants x resilient heroine] I'm stuck and racking my brain. Updates are scheduled for 10:00 a.m. If there's no update, that means I couldn't manage one (drops to knees, pats gently).

When Fu He was fifteen, her whole family fell into ruin. All her relatives died, and she alone managed to escape.

She concealed her identity and hid in a remote mountain village, struggling to survive. When she came across the badly wounded Xie Yi, he was covered in blood and begged her to save him, looking pitiful and harmless.

In the end, Fu He couldn't resist her soft heart and took him home.

She nearly died in the mountains gathering herbs to treat him. To nourish him, she washed clothes for people in the dead of winter, earning a few meager coppers. Even when she was starving, she gave him half of her meager rations.

She never complained and willingly became his crutch.

He said he was a merchant's son, not a bad person, and that he would repay her properly.

Fu He believed him.

But she never imagined that the man she had saved was the crown prince who had been missing for half a year, and the very enemy who had slaughtered her family. His idea of repaying her was to take her by force, make her his concubine, and humiliate her in every way.

*

After Fu He's assassination attempt failed, a far more vicious reprisal followed. She gritted her teeth and wept. "Xie Yi, just give me a quick death. Kill me."

Xie Yi merely gave a cold, mocking smile. "I won't kill you. There's plenty of time. You'll suffer slowly."

Fu He endured the humiliation and carefully made her plans. At last, she escaped while he was off guard.

But all under Heaven belonged to the emperor, and the cavalry sent to find her soon caught up.

Knowing there was no way out, Fu He stood resolutely atop a high pavilion.

Xie Yi slowly emerged, his gaze icy. "Fu He, where do you think you can go while carrying my child?"

*

All his life, Xie Yi had been ruthless, treating human life as no more than grass. His heart was cold and hard.

Even when he took the throne by trampling over the bodies of his own kin, he never once softened.

He had thought himself indestructible. But only when his concubine leapt from a tower like a kite with its string cut did he learn what it meant to be heartbroken.

"A He!" His eyes bloodshot, he staggered toward her, calling out in a voice torn with grief.

"Xie Yi, from now on... in life and in death... we will never meet again."

"You wish!" Great drops of bloody tears poured from his eyes as the body in his arms slowly grew cold. "Even if you flee to the ends of the earth, I'll find you. A He, we were destined to be entwined until death."

But later, even after Xie Yi traveled across countless mountains and rivers, he could never find the gentle, smiling woman who haunted his dreams.

Dead meant dead. She could never come back to life. Fu He became a deep, untouchable wound in his heart.

Both leads are virgins. This is an old-school melodramatic novel featuring, among other things: the emperor taking a minister's wife, jumping from a tower, faked death, amnesia, she runs and he pursues, a madman, old-school melodrama, and a groveling pursuit after the heroine.

Blurb screenshot dated January 9, 2022.

Cover art from a gift by a forum member. Thanks to the original poster!

11111111111111 Please add my new story to your favorites: I Won't Be This Wretched Stand-In Consort Anymore

Bai Yan transmigrated into a book, landing in a sweet romance novel.

Good news: From the start, she was a favored consort, surrounded by gold and rare treasures, and the emperor's sole favorite.

Bad news: She was the second female lead, and the male lead treated her as a stand-in and a blood bank.

Bai Yan was speechless when she heard this.

Fortunately, her sugar-coated words seemed to be working. At least the bastard hadn't actually laid a hand on her, and he wasn't killing people as much anymore. It seemed there was still time to turn things around.

So Bai Yan tried even harder, coaxing and making promises to the male lead around the clock. She even nearly became empress.

"A Yan, to bring her back to life, I need a spirit vessel with a matching fate. Only you will do."

Bai Yan looked at the man before her, so excited that his hand holding the knife was trembling, and was furious. It felt like all her efforts had been for nothing.

As the saying goes, if you don't die in silence, you'll go mad in silence.

She knew the man before her had severe aversions to physical contact and was utterly cold toward sex. Any touch was unbearable to him.

Just before the knife came down, Bai Yan, thinking, "If I die, I'm not letting you get off easy," summoned every ounce of her strength to grab the bastard by the neck and bite down hard on his lips.

Mm, soft and cool.

The dog emperor, who had been laughing wildly, froze, completely caught off guard.

*

No one had ever dared to be so audacious with Xie An. Bai Yan was the first.

That strange kiss left Xie An so unsettled that he could hardly sleep. At last, he couldn't take it anymore and went to find her, only to be told by the palace attendants that she had run away.

*

The emperor had been merciful for a few days, but now he was back to his old ways, slaughtering people throughout the palace. Some said it was because the favored consort had eloped with the man she loved before entering the palace.

For a time, everyone looked at Xie An with guarded, evasive eyes.

Xie An was so angry he laughed.

*

Xie An finally caught the liar who said one thing and meant another. He was going to kill her.

But when she wrapped her arms around his waist and leaned in to kiss him again, Xie An fell strangely silent.

Forget it. He'd kill her later.

A survival expert and smooth-talking master of empty promises x a merciless, cold-blooded emperor with an aversion to sex

Theme: Cherish the person in front of you