After I Hurt the Tragic Beauty, He Was Reborn

***My other upcoming story, It Turns Out She Was Only Repaying a Favor, is open for bookmarks. Blurb at the end.*** Jian Qianping is a strategist serving Prince Yong'an. The small city of Yong'an has been driven to the brink by the powerful Jiang clan, which commands a million troops. She is ready to die for her lord, but then she's told that Jiang Xi, head of the Jiang clan, has issued an ultimatum: he wants her alone. Even after boarding the carriage out of the city, she can't understand why that world-famous young nobleman went to such lengths to bring an army to her doorstep just for an insignificant nobody like her. She doesn't even know him... In his previous life, he was lowborn but loved her with all his heart. Yet hers was wholly devoted to helping her lord ascend the throne. To her, love seemed like nothing but a useless burden. He willingly let her use him, let her hand him over to someone else and turn him into a pawn. Even when she couldn't see him, he saw her as his whole world and was willing to watch over her silently forever. Then, during a coup, her lord was killed and enemy cavalry entered the royal city. For the first time, he defied her and tried to take her away by force. But she turned around and embraced him. He thought she'd had a change of heart, but the next morning he found her cold corpse. She had deceived him, secretly choosing to die with her lord. Their night together had only been to stop him from taking her away. Consumed by hatred for her, he held her corpse as they both perished in a sea of flames. When he opened his eyes again, he had returned to his youth. This time, he vows not to let her toy with him and drive him to his death. He swears to take back everything he lost. Reading guide: 1. The male lead is beautiful, powerful, and tragic. Reborn after the female lead tormented him in his previous life, he's become unhinged in this one. As the blurb suggests, there's a touch of possessive coercion. 2. The female lead is devoted to her career. She was pretty awful in her previous life (emphasis on awful). 3. Cool, alluring, lovesick male lead VS cold, wooden female lead with a career-first mindset. 4. Both leads are sexually inexperienced in both lives. In their previous life they loved each other, but in this life the male lead has an unrequited crush at first. He suffers a bit, and the female lead slowly regains her memories of her previous life later on. [Writing is hard, and tastes differ. Reading should be fun, so if this isn't to your taste, feel free to check out something else, sweetheart.] ***My upcoming story, It Turns Out She Was Only Repaying a Favor. Click into my author's page to check it out!*** Yu Xiaoxi had been mentally impaired for many years and had only regained her senses three years ago when disaster struck her family. Luckily, a benefactor saved them and spared all five family members. Overwhelmed with gratitude, Yu Xiaoxi had no chance to repay him before she unexpectedly died. On her deathbed, she vowed that since she owed him five lives, in her next life she would repay his kindness fivefold, serving him as faithfully as an ox or a horse. But when she closed her eyes and opened them again, she found herself in the body of Yu Hanxi, the woman who was about to marry her benefactor. Well... let's just say the chance to repay him came a little too soon. It turns out she was originally Yu Hanxi, a highborn young woman. Three years ago, a transmigrator took over her body, and with nowhere else to go, her soul entered the body of the foolish Yu Xiaoxi. Now the transmigrator has died by accident and her soul has returned to the modern world, allowing Yu Hanxi to return to her own body. Looking at the husband who had practically fallen into her lap, she remembers the vow she'd made not long ago as Yu Xiaoxi. She grits her teeth and decides to keep her promise, treat him even better than before, repay him fivefold, and then leave with her head held high and divorce him. But her benefactor is powerful, beautiful, and ruthless. Repaying him is no easy task. With no idea where to begin, she can only treat him better and better, until he even starts to suspect her motives. As his pale fingers close around her throat, she looks into those dark, cold, cruel eyes. Her instinct to survive inspires her to stammer out an excuse: "I do all this because... I love you." Later, when she's finally down to her last favor, her benefactor pins her in place, his crimson lips close to her ear as he whispers icily: "I want you to keep loving me... Even if you have to pretend, keep pretending for the rest of your life." Luo Fuming, Commander of the Xuanxiao Office, holds a high position at a young age. Beneath his pale, cold, beautiful exterior lies a man of ruthless ambition who will stop at nothing. Officials throughout the court pale at the mention of his name, and he's earned the nickname Ghost of the Nether Night. For political reasons, Luo Fuming marries Yu Hanxi, the eldest legitimate daughter of the Yu family. Even though Yu Hanxi is infatuated with the Imperial Preceptor, Luo Fuming doesn't care. They make an agreement: as long as she cooperates with him, once everything is settled, they can part on good terms. Then one day, she accidentally witnesses something she shouldn't have seen. He crushes a man's neck in his hand, steps over a pool of blood, and thinks indifferently that his nominal wife may have to die. Unexpectedly, she doesn't panic or scream. Instead, she calmly tells him that there's a better option than killing her to keep her quiet. Impressed by her courage, he doesn't kill her right away. Later, she risks her life for him time and again. He thinks that if she loves him that much, perhaps he could let her stay in his household. But when his wife, who has always smiled warmly at him, hears this, her face turns deathly pale, and she runs away in the middle of the night. Only then does Luo Fuming understand that he was the one who had fallen in love. She had only been repaying a favor. Reading guide: 1. A ruthless, cold, alluring, strange, and unhinged beauty of a male lead VS a female lead who has no interest in love and only wants to repay a debt and put the past behind her. 2. The male lead really is insane due to his unusual experiences, and has no regard for conventional morality. Later, he becomes mad with love. If that's not your cup of tea, see you in the next story. 3. The female lead is a native of this world. A transmigrator possessed her for three years, but after she returns to her own body, she inherits both her original memories and the transmigrator's memories from those three years, so she occasionally uses modern expressions. 4. Happy ending, both leads are sexually inexperienced. Core theme: Treat everyone around you who loves you with kindness.