I Went to Claim the Throne

After killing the foolish emperor, Song Yingshi was not only reborn in the body of her eighteen-year-old dog of an ex-husband, but also inherited a third-hand secret manual, The Map of Mountains, Rivers, and Society. From then on, her farming spirit awakened. She climbed the technological tree, rolled up her sleeves, and got to work on infrastructure.

Distribute farmland and plant potatoes, so the people can eat their fill, dress warmly, and enjoy good harvests.

Build highways and open trade routes, bringing prosperity and wealth.

Build schools and enlighten the people, educating talent without discrimination.

Build blast furnaces and temper steel, forging blades sharp enough to draw without fear.

Friends come to celebrate with fine wine; enemies come to attack and meet her blades. Before she knows it, she's turned a remote border town into a paradise. Civil and military officials travel hundreds of miles to pledge their allegiance, reclusive masters come from far and wide, and talented men and beautiful women flock to her side... Allies of every sort join forces to build a wonderful new world!

Who would have thought that after taking the throne, she'd discover that she can't enjoy any of the pleasures of being emperor?

Every official at court wants to be sworn brothers with me.

Every high-ranking minister wants to be my father-in-law.

And all kinds of white lotuses, green teas, and pampered beauties are doing their utmost to win my attention.

Song Yingshi's response:

Women only slow down my infrastructure projects. The same goes for men.

The realm and its people are the only things I will ever pursue.

Coming soon: I'd Rather Marry a Libertine Than the Grand Secretary

Lu Yuezhu is the little princess of the Prince of Zhenbei's household. Beautiful and radiant, she should have found a worthy husband and lived a life of wealth and leisure.

Unfortunately, she fell blindly in love with a poor scholar.

Lu Yuezhu loves Shen Hanliu. She finds him books, searches for good doctors, and cures his crippled legs.

Her open affection earns her nothing but repeated coldness. When his careless maid makes a mistake, Shen Hanliu actually humiliates Lu Yuezhu in public for her sake: "Miss Lu, please show some self-respect. Your behavior is making people uncomfortable."

Yuezhu has her own dignity and pride. In a huff, she turns away and swears she'll never look at him again. That night, she dreams of the future. In the dream, she uses her past kindness to force Shen Hanliu to marry her, and the two become a miserable couple. She spends her days in tears and eventually dies of illness in her own home.

What would be the point?

Yuezhu lets go with her head held high. What's love got to do with anything? A man is no more important than happiness. She spends lavishly on opera and pleasure cruises, enjoys cockfighting and horse races, and lives in carefree freedom. The young gentlemen eager to accompany her line up from her front door to the city gate, while she casts that withered peach blossom far beyond the clouds.

She returns to being the brightest, most dazzling little princess in all of the capital.

But after she lets go, Shen Hanliu panics. He sees her everywhere in his life, yet the person who once filled him with joy and worry has vanished without a trace.

He passes the examinations, enters government service, and rises higher at every step until he becomes the all-powerful Grand Secretary. But the person he loves most will never look at him again.

She deliberately avoids him, as if he were a venomous snake or a savage beast.

Shen Hanliu waits outside her home, holding a jade hairpin he carved himself. He casts aside his pride and bows his head, pleading desperately for her to spare him one glance.

The door remains firmly shut.

He lies sick in bed for three days, feverish and delirious. He doesn't get to see the woman he loves. Instead, he hears that Princess Yuezhu is to be betrothed to General Song.

*

Song Xingci is known throughout the capital as a little tyrant: arrogant, reckless, and afraid of nothing. But no one knows that he's also a coward who can't bring himself to confess, a fool who ran off to the borderlands to nurse a broken heart.

The little tyrant Song fears nothing, except seeing the childhood friend next door cry. When she does, he becomes so flustered he doesn't know what to do, more terrified than when his own father set the dogs on him. The awkward boy doesn't dare speak his feelings, burying his love deep in his heart until it withers away before he can confess.

Yuezhu falls for that wretched scholar who makes her cry all the time.

What can he do?

He can't drag the wretched scholar out and beat him up. So he gathers up his aching, unripe love and heads for the northern frontier thousands of miles away. He rides hard, brandishes his silver spear, earns military honors, and defends his homeland. With his ferocious, fearless bravery, he rises from common soldier to general, earning even the Prince of Zhenbei's respect.

On the day the victorious army returns, he rides a tall horse back to the majestic royal city he has been away from for so long. The person he most wants to protect is here.

Amid flowers and cheers, surrounded by thousands, he catches sight of his childhood friend for the first time in ages. Her eyes are wet, and those tears are for him.

General Song is instantly at a loss. In a flurry, he dismounts. Whether he was once a young libertine or is now a great general, he has always bent the knee for her alone.

Theme: Development is the hard truth. Roll up your sleeves and work hard